Broken World
by GuyYouMetOnline
Summary: They were driven into hiding by mysterious attacks and an impossible death. The threat returns, but they're not running. With everyone against them, can they discover the source of the attacks? And more importantly, can they stop it?  -Reviews encouraged-
1. Chapter 1: Until the Storm

**Chapter 1  
**_Until the Storm_

The spears of ice came flying towards her. She could stop them the old way, but that wasn't the point. Instead, she incinerated them with a blast of flame, then formed her own ice spears and sent them at her opponent. Her opponent did the exact thing she'd chosen not to do, taking control of the spears and diverting them; her old way was the new way for her opponent.

"Right," her opponent said after the opening volleys had been exchanged, "let's kick it up a notch." And they did, launching increasingly difficult and deadly attacks at each other and countering what came at them.

"Here's a harder one for you," her opponent said eventually. "Match this!"

The spellcard version was called 'Mega Flare', but this was not a danmaku battle, it was no spellcard, and the spheres of nuclear fire coming towards her were very dangerous. But she didn't evade. That wasn't the point. Instead, she countered each 'star', as her opponent called them, with one of her own. At first, the stars came one at a time, with a few seconds between each one, but the pace steadily accelerated until both of them were creating and launching stars as rapidly as they could. They kept it up for some time, until her opponent said to stop.

"My turn," she said. She formed an enormous block of ice, flinging it towards her opponent at very high speed. Her opponent could have done any of a number of things, but they'd already gone through all of those. This time, her opponent didn't burn through the ice, or divert it, or anything like that. Instead, her opponent focused, and as the block of ice flew at her, it simply came apart, and not just into smaller blocks of ice. It came apart completely. _'Disintegrated', right? _Their roles reversed, her opponent sending a huge block of ice at her. She did the same thing her opponent had done.

"Now let's do this," her opponent said, beginning to throw stars again. This time, however, she didn't counter with her own, instead dissipating them just as she'd done with the ice, although it was harder to do it with the stars. Then she sent some at her opponent, who did the same thing. "And now for the big one," her opponent said. Her opponent formed a massive star and sent it towards her. She focused on the approaching star, and eventually, she succeeded in dissipating it. She then formed her own, which was in itself a test for her; she'd never made one this large before. But she formed it without difficulty and sent it at her opponent. And as she'd just done, her opponent disintegrated it.

"That'll end the practice, then," her opponent said. "Now it's go time. Let's see how long we can last." And they went back at it, throwing everything they could at each other. It was, if nothing else, an impressive display. The wanton expendature of energy was wasteful, but efficiency wasn't the point. The two of them were going all-out, using all of their power, every ounce of ability they'd developed, in a spectacular clash. If they'd been anywhere else, the area would have been devastated by their assaults, but here, there was nothing except the fire below, making it an ideal location for their battle.

The two of them had developed their powers to an amazing extent over the years, but this was the first time they'd truly used everything they had. That was the point of this battle; they knew what their limits once were, but they were far beyond those now. This battle was a test of their new level of power, a trial to see how far they could go, to see just what their limits were now.

The spectacle lessened over time as the two of them began to wear out, but they kept at it even as they tired, continuing for as long as they possibly could.

She and her opponent flew up to each other when the battle ended. "I… didn't… think… it was… possible… to be so… tired," she managed to get out."

"I… know… what you mean," her opponent said. "But… we… did well. Good… job, Cirno."

"You… you too, Utsuho. Let's… go back. Get some rest."

"You don't… have… to say that twice. Come on."

* * *

_It began with a single death._

_My name is Cirno. As a fairy, death is something I had never given much thought. I was a child then. I had been one for quite some time. Not in the sense of age, of course, but mentally, I was a child for a long time. In addition, death isn't something that meant much to those like me. When fairies die, they resurrect. I've died a few times myself. Until it happened, I gave little thought to dying; it hurt, but that was all. But not anymore. Not since she died. Now, I cannot be certain that I will resurrect if I die. Because she should have, but she didn't._

_I don't know what killed Daiyousei; I never got a clear look at it. I remember being unconcerned as it left, waiting for Daiyousei to get up. But she didn't. And then the chaos began. Other fairies came rushing by, with more of the… things in pursuit. I grabbed Daiyousei's body and got out of there myself. I was faster than the others and made it away, but many of the others were caught and, I would assume, killed._

_I carried Daiyousei with me as I continued my flight. I kept waiting for Daiyousei to resurrect, but I think that even then I knew she wasn't going to. And I was terrified that the same thing would happen to me._

_I didn't know or care where I was going. I just kept going until I quite literally ran into another. She was on the run herself, she said, but she actually had a destination. She introduced herself as Utsuho. "Come with me tonight," she said. "Let's find a place where we can hide."_

_I got her story later on. As a result of her power, she was in charge of the power plant. The power plant was attacked by things that sounded like what I was attacked by, but she couldn't just run. She said that others were there at the time: Satori, Koishi, and Orin. The three of them, Utsuho told me, held the things off while Utsuho shut the plant down safely. They bought her enough time, but all three of them died doing so. She was heading back underground to hide, and when we ran into each other, she brought me with her._

_I stopped at the entrance to the underground. She hadn't yet told me where we were going, so I thought we were stopping there. "Will we be okay here?" I asked._

"_We're not stopping here. We're going in. Let me show you how we'll stay alive." She grabbed me and pulled me into the hole with her. "I doubt we'll be seen; this isn't the main entrance to the underground. Follow me." And I did. I didn't know what to do, so I just did what she said._

_She led me to a place she called the 'Palace of the Earth Spirits'. "This is home," she told me. "We all lived here, but… Satori and the others are gone now. Nobody ever comes here; they all kept as far away from Satori as they could. They didn't want her reading their minds. It should be a while before anyone realizes that… that she's dead. And it'll be a while before anybody decides to come here. They won't know we're here."_

"_Is that important?"_

"_Satori told me to hide," Utsuho replied. "I didn't want to, but I… I had no choice. I couldn't have taken those things. She told me to hide out, but when you and I ran into each other, I… I knew I didn't want to hide out alone."_

_I didn't want to be alone, either. And I couldn't go back home; what if some of those things were still there? Or what if they showed up again? Or what if… I had many such thoughts, not all rational (although some were), but I was just a scared child, and they were there, and I didn't want to be alone. So I stayed._

_We'd needed to get rid of Daiyousei's body. Doing so was hard for me, but also necessary. And it was the first step away from the child I'd been. We took her to the 'Blazing Hell' and placed her in the fires there. I think it was just as significant for Utsuho as it was for me; for her, the body represented the ones she had lost._

_We made a decision that day. We resolved to train ourselves, to get stronger, so that if or when those things showed up again, we would be ready._

_We used the Blazing Hell our training grounds. And as we proceeded with our training, it became apparent that we had some sort of sensitivity to each other's abilities. It was Utsuho who figured out why. She showed me books from the outside world, obtained from Rinnosuke; apparently, Satori had sought out these 'textbooks' in an attempt to understand Utsuho's power. Utsuho didn't really understand what was in them, and neither did I. But we could understand what the two of us had in common._

_According to the textbooks, everything is made up of things called 'atoms' or 'molecules' or 'particles' or something; most of it was incomprehensible to us. But we could understand that our powers both involved manipulating them in some way._

_My power was the ability to manipulate cold. The textbooks said that heat comes from the motion of these particles. Apparently, the faster they're moving, the hotter it is. So what I did was slow this motion. As for the ice, water is one of these 'molecules', apparently. In forming and controlling ice, I was actually forming and controlling water molecules; I just hadn't known it. Ice and cold were all I'd known how to control, but Utsuho said that I might be able to control other molecules, as well._

_Utsuho's power was something called 'nuclear fusion'. We didn't understand what that was; Utsuho knew, of course, but she didn't truly _know_, if that makes any sense. But Utsuho did know that 'fusion' referred to something along the lines of combining molecules. Her power, like mine, involved the creation and manipulation of these things._

_To test this, we began attempting to copy each other's abilities. And eventually, we succeeded. So in addition to working on the powers we already knew we had, we began working to master each other's abilities; I helped Utsuho learn to perform the cold manipulation I did, and she helped me learn to do what she did. And from there, we worked to expand the range of our powers as much as we could._

_We learned to sense objects even when we couldn't see them. We learned to move and control objects through the particles they were made of. We learned to destroy objects by dispersing their particles. We learned to form objects. And so on. We didn't really understand any of it-and my explanation is undoubtedly very inaccurate-but we could do it. And we also learned that something-we don't know what-separates living objects from non-living objects. Makes them different. Different enough that, with the exception of sensing things, the power over non-living objects we developed has no effect on life (it is, I think, worth mentioning that trees and other 'plant life' occupy some sort of middle ground; whatever the difference is does exist in plants, but not to the level it does in true life. As a result, our power could affect plants, although not to the same degree; in particular, we cannot create or disperse them, although other abilities work at least to an extent). Also, dispersing anything of a significant size currently requires enough time and concentration to make it impractical in a combat situation, although we're working to change that._

_It's funny, really. Back when I was a child, I would always boast that I was 'the strongest'. And now, it's quite possible that Utsuho and I actually are. We've definitely, over the years, developed and strengthened our powers to a degree we hadn't thought we possibly could. And we are certainly very, very far beyond anything I'd ever seen before we began our training. And we can still go farther. That's the truly amazing part; we can still go farther._

* * *

"That," Cirno said once they'd returned to the Palace of the Earth Spirits, "was a workout."

"Yeah," Utsuho replied. "The good kind, though. If you want to get better, you have to push yourself."

"I know. And it was a very good fight. I still can't believe how far we've come."

"And we can keep going," Utsuho said. "We can keep going. If we see those-" A crash cut her off. "Uh-oh."

"Again? It's been over a year. I thought our little haunted house routine scared the last of them away."

"Seemed that way, didn't it? But no, there'll always be some. A haunted house will always attract… certain types. Although our last routine kept even those away for a while."

Eventually, people had come to the Palace of the Earth Spirits, and found it deserted; Cirno and Utsuho had hidden themselves. Then there was nothing for a while, but then others started to show interest in the place. Which they'd expected; someone would surely think about moving in eventually. So they'd set up a haunted house routine to scare them off.

At first, the routine had simply been various tricks to make it seem like something was there, some sort of spirit or something. Not a ghost; people knew about those, knew what they were. And they were identifiable. They wanted people to not know what was there. And it had worked, mostly; it was rare for anyone to come in. And as Cirno and Utsuho had developed their newer abilities, the routine had gotten more and more convincing. Their last one, over a year ago, was the best yet; Cirno was particularly fond of the finale, which involved taking the part of the floor the uninvited guests were standing on and using it to throw them outside (and putting the floor piece back and repairing the damage was easy now, too).

"I don't sense anyone," Cirno said.

"I don't, either. Well, let's go take a look."

* * *

"I think it's obvious what happened," Cirno said. "Something hit the wall with enough force to break through."

"Yeah," Utsuho said. "Um, am I hearing things?"

"No," Cirno said. "I hear it, too."

"I think it's getting louder."

"Let's check outsi-"

Cirno was cut off when something came crashing through the wall right next to where the first one had hit. It picked itself up, and-

"Them," Utsuho said.

As the… whatever it was flew out, Cirno and Utsuho rushed to the opening its entrance made and looked outside. "It would seem," Utsuho remarked, "that our time's up."

The… things were attacking the underground. The residents were putting up quite a fight, but it looked like they were losing.

"Right there," Cirno said, pointing. A number of them were approaching the Palace, but not deliberately. They were chasing someone. And that someone was giving them a hell of a fight.

"Yuugi," Utsuho said. "Not surprising. She's a tough one."

"You think she's the one who threw the things into our wall?"

"Most likely."

The two watched. "Damn it," Cirno said, "we're too worn out for a fight like this. What do we do?"

"We may be worn out, but even at our worst we're still better than our best was before we started training. We can-incoming!"

Yuugi threw another one their way. This time, it wasn't given the opportunity to get up. Cirno sent an ice spear through its head as soon as it came through the wall. "Well, you're not so tough."

The thing was motionless for a second, but then got up as if nothing had happened. "What the hell?" Cirno sent an ice spear into its chest, and another right below that one, but it kept moving. She threw a ball of nuclear fire at it, followed by a storm of ice shards. And as the shards hit, the thing finally stopped moving. The ice spears fell to the floor as the thing… came apart, as if only some force had been keeping it whole. "Okay, what the hell? What are these things?"

"Did you feel it?" Utsuho asked. "They're not alive."

"I felt it. But then what are they?"

"I don't know. They're not living, but they aren't non-living, either. They're like life in one way, though; I couldn't manipulate the thing in any way. I could only sense it."

"And what happened when I hit it? A spear through the head, and it kept moving. It's like it kept going until it had taken a certain amount of damage, then just… 'die' isn't the right word for something that's not alive, is it? It… stopped existing, then."

"And when you did defeat it, it just came apart. It looked a little bit like when we dissipate things, but… different. It's as though when it was defeated, whatever force was holding it together just… vanished."

"What are these things?"

"I don't know," Utsuho said, "but there are more of them to deal with."

"Why did they have to attack right after we wore ourselves out like that?"

"Well, I think we can handle this despite that. Especially with Yuugi's help; she's tough. She often holds back a lot, but when she doesn't, she's at least as tough as I was pre-training. Not even close anymore, of course, although as worn out as we are right now, she may actually outperform us."

'I guess it's either that or run," Cirno said, "and we didn't put so much effort into our training just to run away again."

"Agreed. Let's do this."


	2. Chapter 2: Emerging Threat

**Chapter 2  
**_Emerging Threat_

Yuugi threw another one of the things in the direction of the Palace of the Earth Spirits, but it was blasted back past her. "Watch it, will you?" Utsuho said as she flew up beside Yuugi.

Yuugi turned to face Utsuho. "What are you doing over- wait, you're… Utsuho?"

"I thought I'd lend a hand. You seemed to want me to, given how many of these things you've been throwing into my home."

"Your home? So… you're behind that 'haunted house' business?"

"So not the time for this!" Cirno said as she flew past them, sending ice spears at one of the things.

"Cirno's right," Utsuho said. "We can talk later."

Yuugi nodded. "Okay, then. I can take these. You two go help everyone in the city."

"If you're sure you can handle it."

"I am. Oh, and I'll try to stop throwing them into the Palace."

"Don't worry about that," Utsuho said. "We can repair it easily. Do what you have to. Cirno, follow me!"

* * *

"Two more, incoming!"

"I see them," Cirno said. "Spear 'em?"

"Works for me." Utsuho and Cirno launched ice spears at the two approaching enemies until they 'burst', as the two of them were calling it. "That didn't take much," Utsuho observed. "I guess those ones already took some damage."

"Not as much as the one we finished off after Yuugi threw it into the Palace, though."

"Which isn't surprising. Not counting us, she's easily the toughest person down here. More coming from the side!"

"I sense them. Let's fry 'em."

There were three this time. They came in at ground level, weaving through the wrecked buildings. As soon as they came into view, Cirno and Utsuho hit them with stars until they burst.

"I'm not sensing any more of them here," Cirno said.

"Neither am I. Let's sweep the rest of the city."

* * *

_My name is Utsuho._

_For me, it began with an attack on the power plant. I don't know why so many of the things came to the plant; from what Cirno told me later, it didn't sound like nearly as many had attacked the fairies. But that's what happened._

_I suppose I was lucky. If I'd been alone, the things would've killed me. And without me, the power plant would likely experience catastrophic failure. To prevent that, I had to shut the plant down. I wouldn't have had enough time to do so if not for their sacrifice._

_They were all there. Satori, Koishi, Orin, everyone. They held the things off while I shut the plant down. I'd intended to join the fight when I was done, but there wasn't much of a fight left. Satori came to me just as I finished. She was badly injured, and she told me that most of the others were dead. What few remained were still fighting, but there wasn't any hope. Satori told me to run. I wanted to bring her with me, but she said she wasn't going to make it anyways. Then some of the things came in, and she stood up against them, giving me time to run. I wanted to stay and fight, but I knew there were too many. If I'd stayed, I'd have died, too._

_Satori told me to go back to the Palace. She told me to hide there. And then she told me one last thing._

"_I can't read them," she'd said. "They don't have minds."_

_I ran. I didn't have a choice. I hated the fact that I could only run away and leave Satori behind, but staying would only have gotten me killed along with her and the others. I had to run._

_As I headed for the nearest entrance to the underground, I collided with another. She said her name was Cirno, and she was running from what sounded like the same things I was running from._

_As soon as I saw her, I knew I didn't want to be alone, so I brought her with me. She was carrying a body. Once we reached the Palace, she told me that it was the body of her friend, Daiyousei. She told me that the things had been killing faries, and that the fairies they killed weren't resurrecting. That's why she had Daiyousei's body with her; she wanted to believe that Daiyousei could still come back._

_We hid together in the Palace. One thing we needed to do was dispose of Daiyousei's body. Cirno didn't want to, but I think she'd finally admitted to herself that Daiyousei was permanently dead. We took Daiyousei's body to the Blazing Hell and placed it in the fires there._

_For Cirno, it was her final goodbye to a friend she'd never thought she could lose. For me, it was my final goodbye to the ones I'd lost. I kept seeing them in place of the dead fairy. Satori. Orin. Everyone. They were all dead now._

_As Daiyousei's body burned away, Cirno and I made a decision. We resolved to train ourselves, to develop our powers as much as possible. Because the things would most likely show up again, and when they did, we weren't going to run._

_We had a lot more time to train than I'd expected. We made periodic recon trips to the world above, although we were careful to remain undetected. We never found any sign of the things, but our resolve did not waver. We kept at our training, developing our powers far beyond anything we could have expected._

_The things have finally returned, but this time, Cirno and I are ready._

_

* * *

_

Yuugi found the two of them once the battle was over. "Thanks for the- what the-?"

"Don't worry," Utsuho said. "It's trapped." And it was. It was incased in ice and frozen to the ground. It was struggling to free itself, and would have succeeded before long if Cirno hadn't been keeping the ice whole.

"You captured one of them?"

"I don't think we can keep it," Cirno said. "I'm having to focus on keeping it trapped. Otherwise, it'd break free quickly. But Utsuho thought we should get a good look at one of the things."

"A good idea."

The three of them leaned in close. "It just looks… wrong," Yuugi said.

Cirno nodded. "Yeah. Almost like one of those… what did you say they were called, Utsuho? Many-somethings?:

"Mannequins," Utsuho said. "And you're right; it does remind me of them. But at least those have things that are at least recognizable as features, especially facial features like eyes and ears. But this… thing is different. Look at it; it's completely featureless. It has the same basic body shape, but… nothing else."

"Am I the only one having trouble telling what color the thing is?" Yuugi asked.

"No," Cirno replied. "I've noticed it, too. I can't tell if it's a dark red or a dark blue or a dark whatever. It's like it changes, but… without changing. The change seem to actually happen; you just see what would be the new coloration after such a change."

"It's always very dark, though," Utsuho said. "It even makes yellow hard to tell from black."

"You almost can't tell unless you're looking very closely," Yuugi said. "They all looked black during the battle; you have to look close to see any difference."

"Man," Cirno said, "what _are_ these things?"

"I don't know, but at least we fought them off. Thanks for the help."

"We should be thanking you," Cirno said. "It could've been trouble for just the two of us, since we'd just worn ourselves out."

"You didn't look worn out. And you, Utsuho, you were fighting just as well as I've ever seen you."

"You haven't seen me in years," Utsuho said. "Things can change in that much time."

"Elaborate, please."

"This isn't the first time I've seen these things," Utsuho explained. "The first time was years ago. They showed up at the power plant, a huge number of them-far more than were here. I'm the only one who made it out alive. Satori and Orin and everyone held them off long enough for me to shut the plant down, but... they didn't survive. Satori told me to run, to come back down here and hide. And she said… she said that these things don't have minds."

"Wait, what? How's that even possible?"

"How should we know?" Cirno remarked.

"Good point. Anyways, Utsuho, you were saying?"

"I ran into Cirno on my way back," Utsuho continued. "She was running from the things, too. That's another thing; they kill fairies. Permanently."

"This is starting to get crazy," Yuugi remarked.

"Tell me about it. Anyways, the two of us came down here and hid in the Palace."

"That's when you all disappeared."

Utsuho nodded. "I figured that if anyone thought about it, they'd assume I was gone, too. And I knew that it would be at least a while before anyone came poking around."

"And when they did, you did your haunted house thing to scare them off. But… how did you do some of that stuff? I actually saw that last group a year ago get thrown out. How did you do that?"

"We spent the years training. We've developed our powers substantially. It turns out the abilities we knew of were only a very small part of what we could potentially do. The two of us have come a very long way."

"I see. So you spent the time training, then. Let me guess; you intend to fight the things this time."

Cirno nodded. "We do. We're not going to run away this time."

"Are you going up above, then?"

"We are." Cirno turned back to the imprisoned figure. "But first, let's finish this one off. Who wants it?"

Yuugi answered by breaking through the ice and beating the shit out of the thing until it burst. "Done."

"All right, then," Utsuho said. She turned to Cirno. "Okay, we need to rest before we head up there. We'll go tomorrow. You know what we'll have to deal with once we get up there."

Cirno nodded. "I know."

"What do you mean?" Yuugi asked.

"When people learn that I'm up there," Utsuho explained, "they're going to react badly. They won't like the fact that I'm much more powerful now, not after what happened when I originally gained power. They'll already be suspicious of me. Then add in the fact that Cirno and I disappeared after the first attack, only to reappear in tandem with the second."

"You're expecting opposition."

Utsuho nodded. "When we go up there, we'll have more than just the things to deal with. The default response to a problem in Gensokyo, current or potential, is to beat the crap out of said problem. And they'll see me as a potential problem. When we go up there, we'll have them to deal with as well as the… things."

"Hey, not a problem," Cirno said. "That's why we've worked on new spellcards, right? They'll come in for danmaku battles like always, and we'll beat 'em."

"Ideally. Keep in mind, however, that they won't necessarily engage us in danmaku battles. We can still fight them off without killing them, but we will have to hurt them. And among them may be people you know. Are you sure you can do that?"

"Yes already. That's the 213th time you've asked me that; I get it."

"Well, good luck, you two," Yuugi said. "I'm not sure what we'll do without you if these things attack again, though; I don't think we would've won that without your help."

"Then see if you can find anyone to come down here for the time being," Utsuho said. "You know Suika, right? Try asking her."

"That's a good idea, actually, although I'd hate to leave even briefly; the people here won't have even a small chance against another attack without me here. Although I could probably find her quickly… or maybe send someone out to get her… well, that's my concern, not yours. Goos luck up there, you two."

"Thanks," Utsuho said. "Good luck to you, too."

* * *

"I can feel them already," Utsuho said. "There are only a few of them, though."

Cirno and Utsuho had recovered from the previous day's training and battle, and were ready to head back to the above world. Unlike with their scouting runs, this time they were using the main entrance. Remaining unseen wasn't a concern this time; although they'd rather their presence remain unknown for as long as possible, their objective wasn't exactly conducive to keeping a low profile.

"They're still around the entrance," Cirno said. "Are they planning another attack on the underground?"

"We don't even know if these things can plan at all."

"But there has to be some reason for their actions."

"Thought isn't required for a reason," Utsuho said. "Natural instincts are proof enough of that. Although we probably shouldn't assume that these things have instincts. We're going up against a complete unknown here; we shouldn't make any assumptions about the things."

"Yeah. Anyways, I don't sense anything else in the area."

"Neither do I. All that's around here right now is a few of the things. We'll charge out and take care of them quickly. Although remember that these are likely fresh, whereas the ones we fought yesterday were already in battle by the time we joined in. We found yesterday that these things can take a good bit of damage, and these ones won't have taken any of it already."

"We'll be fine," Cirno said.

"Most likely, but we should still be careful."

"Yeah. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready," Utsuho said. "Let's do it."

* * *

Cirno and Utsuho flew out of the opening, taking the enemy completely by surprise. They landed on opposite sides of the opening and went to work. Cirno blasted her targets with a storm of fire and ice, sending ice spears at them as well. A couple of them closed in on her, and she reacted by forming several ice blades and spinning them rapidly around herself. When the things staggered back, she sent the blades flying into them. Another came at her, and she sent ice spears at it. And then she dropped a huge block of ice on it.

Utsuho's approach was somewhat more direct. She ran up to one and punched it, adding a nuclear blast to the impact and sending the thing flying. As others came at her, she took them out with a combination of physical and magical attacks. But when a certain one came at her…

* * *

Cirno finished off her opponents, then turned towards Utsuho. Utsuho had finished, as well, but she had a trio of the things encased in ice as Cirno'd done with that one the day before. And she was visibly shaken.

"We've got another complication," Utsuho said as Cirno came up beside her.

"What is it?"

"Take a look at these three." Utsuho indicated one of them. "This one is like the one we examined yesterday. Completely featureless. But look at this one," she said, moving to the next one in line. "Take a close look; this one's different."

And it was. It was still mostly featureless, but…

"It's a fairy," Cirno said.

"Yes. The differences are minor enough that you wouldn't notice without taking a close look at it. I actually froze this one because I thought it was the 'normal' kind, like the one we looked at yesterday. But it's not, so I froze that other one. I wanted it for comparison purposes, because come take a look at this one."

The third one looked closer to the first one, but the face had signs of basic features such as eyes. They weren't there, but there were things that should have been them. But the most noticeable difference was… "What's with the cat ears?"

"Look closer," Utsuho said after a pause. "Look at the sides of the head."

Cirno moved in closer, and soon saw something that had to be what Utsuho was referring to. "Those are where ears usually are. Is this supposed to be two sets of ears?"

Silence.

"I've seen it before," Utsuho said eventually. "And… it doesn't look like her-none of these things could ever look like a real person-but it looks like… like it's supposed to look like her."

"Like who?"

"Orin."


	3. Chapter 3: Complications

**Chapter 3  
**_Complications_

After her explanation, Utsuho just stood there, completely motionless. _It's like she was explaining on automatic,_ Cirno thought. _She's too stunned by this for anything else._ Utsuho wasn't even maintaining the ice prisons; Cirno finished off the 'normal' and 'fairy' things, then took charge of keeping the Orin one trapped. And Utsuho just stood there.

Cirno took hold of Utsuho and shook. "Snap out of it! That's not her! Understand? That! Is! Not! Orin!"

"Of course it's not," Utsuho said, and Cirno let go. "But…

"I know," Cirno said. And she did; if it'd been Daiyousei, she was sure she would have felt the same way.

"She's dead. I know she's dead. But this thing… why does it…"

"It it trying to imitate her?"

"Damn it!"

"Don't let it get to you."

"So I should just ignore that it… that it looks…"

"No," Cirno said.

"We're here to destroy these things. But… it's… I can't… it's too…"

Cirno speared the thing until it burst. "There. I took care of it."

Utsuho fell to the ground. "Damn it! We're supposed to be destroying these things! How can we do this if I can't…"

"There's nothing special about you," Cirno said. "If it'd been Daiyousei instead of Orin, I… I don't think I could've made myself do it. I…"

Utsuho was silent for a time. Eventually, she got back to her feet. "I know," she said. "I know. It's just… seeing it all of a sudden, I just…"

The two of them stood in silence for a while. "If we encounter any others that look like the ones you lost," Cirno said, "I'll take care of them for you."

"I… I'll do the same for you. And Cirno?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

* * *

"Okay," Utsuho said once she'd had time to recover, "we need to get moving."

"What's the plan?"

"We need information. We can destroy every one of these twisted things we see, but that won't accomplish anything. We don't know anything about them; hell, we don't even have a name for them."

"Let's just call them 'twisted', then."

"Well… yeah, that works. But we still don't know anything about them."

"Do you have any ideas?" Cirno asked.

"I do, actually. Originally, I thought the twisted simply wouldn't be able to find us easily if we hid from them underground. I thought we've have some time, but not nearly as much as we actually had. And, of course, when we came up here to check on things, they were nowhere to be seen. Which means that someone dealt with them last time. If we can find this person, we should be able to learn a few things."

"But whatever was done didn't work. The twisted came back."

"We're not doing this so we can copy the previous method. We're doing it because this person is likely to have at least some information about the twisted. And right now, information is what we need."

"Okay, then," Cirno said. "So we need to find someone and get information. Great. Um, quick question: do you happen to have any idea who we're looking for? Because going around and asking everyone doesn't exactly sound appealing to me."

"Actually, I do know who to look for," Utsuho said. "It's not hard to figure out, really. I realize your own initial run-in with her was just her passing through the area, but you know almost as well as I do who it is that always shows up in response to any sort of problem."

"Reimu. Yeah, I guess you're right. But, Utsuho, you know she'll attack us. Is it really a good idea to go pick a fight with her?"

"We'll have to deal with her eventually; you know that as well as I do. I say we get it out of the way. We can take her."

"In a danmaku battle, sure, but what if she decides to fight for real? She could just do that… floating away from reality thing or whatever it is. What're we supposed to do then?"

"Outlast her," Utsuho said. "We can counter everything she can throw at us, and we can keep it up for much longer then she can. Sure, we still wouldn't be able to hit her, but if she's too worn out to do anything, it doesn't really matter."

"Good point."

"Right, then. But before we head for the shrine, I want to check on something else."

"What's that?"

"The power plant. It should be completely unusable without me there, and should pose no danger to anyone. But you know why I think there might be something about the place that draws the twisted in. Whatever that was is probably not present in the shut-down plant, but I'd like to confirm things for myself."

"Works for me," Cirno said.

"Then let's go."

_

* * *

_

I met a lot of people at the power plant; they'd never seen anything like it before and were curious. Some even showed up more than once. Cirno had never come, but I'd heard her name a few times. People would be laughing about something she'd done or tried to do, and I frequently heard her called an idiot. As I got to know her, I quickly saw that this perception was false. Of course, people had also called me an idiot, so finding out that they were wrong about Cirno wasn't too much of a surprise. I was impulsive, very prone to acting without thinking things through. Cirno did the same thing, although in her case, I don't think 'impulsive' is the correct word; 'childish' is more accurate. Of course, neither of us is that way now.

_Cirno and I came together as a result of the danger we were in and the losses we had suffered. Events such as those can have major effects on people. Losing the people we lost had a significant effect on both of us. It snapped Cirno out of her continuous childhood, and as for me… well, I think the effect was similar. I ceased being as unthinking and careless as I had been._

_Both of us hated the fact that we could only run and hide. That's why we began our training, so that we wouldn't have to run next time. I didn't know how long we'd have; I thought it would take the things time to find us underground, but I wasn't ready for them to vanish completely. Still, we kept up our training, as they could always appear again. And even if they didn't, something else might happen. And I think, too, that we had come to enjoy it. It was exhausting, but satisfying. I think we might have continued our training even without a potential future threat. I certainly would have wanted to._

_Cirno was weaker than me when we began, but she caught up before too long. My first objective was to learn to use the powers I already had without using the 'Third Leg' I had been using. And I was successful; I no longer need it. But I wasn't actually developing my abilities, just learning how to actually use them without aid. It took some time, enough for Cirno to catch up to me._

_When I began working to develop and strengthen my own abilities as well, the two of us progressed at an even pace. And then, of course, we discovered that the powers we had then were only a small piece of the power we could potentially have. We mastered each other's abilities, then worked from there._

_Before we started our training, I was already among the more powerful youkai in Gensokyo. Now, I find it unlikely that anyone could even come close to matching Cirno and I. We've certainly worked much harder at our training than I think anyone else in Gensokyo ever has. I don't think even the witch Marisa Kirisame has ever approached our level of effort. Our training was essentially our sole focus during our years in hiding, and we were motivated to proceed as quickly and efficiently as we possibly could. And the results show._

_The enemy we face is a complete unknown. We do not know what we're up against. We have to be careful, but I am confident in our ability. Our success, of course, is not guaranteed in any way, but I believe that we are ready._

* * *

The brief trip to the power plant was uneventful. A small number of twisted had been there, but that wasn't unusual; they'd seen small groups of twisted all over the place. And although the two of them didn't go hunting for such groups, they did destroy any twisted they happened to see. There was nothing unusual about the group at the power plant, and no sign of whatever might have drawn them in the first time.

After checking out the power plant, they headed for the Hakurei Shrine. Upon arriving, they saw that there were twisted at the shrine. "Not a good sign," Cirno remarked. "If there are twisted here, that means she's not here, right? 'Cause she would've destroyed them if she was."

"I find it unlikely that they got her. And I am sensing someone at the shrine."

"Yeah, I feel it, too. Fast movement down there. I think the person's trying to escape. Utsuho!"

"Agreed. Let's do this."

* * *

The battle was over quickly. Once the last twisted was destroyed, Cirno and Utsuho found the person they'd sensed. "Nazrin," Utsuho said.

"Who is she?" Cirno asked.

"She's with Byakuren's group. You know who she is, right?"

"Yeah, the human-turned-youkai who was trapped in Makai, right?"

"Hold on," Nazrin said, "you're the… how did you… not good." She flew off.

"What was that about?" Cirno said.

"Byakuren's group knows about the incidents that happened while they were sealed. They know a lot about mine, since that's what released most of them. They know who I am, and they know what almost happened the last time I gained power. And Nazrin saw the fight, so she knows I'm stronger now. We've been over this, Cirno. It looks like we'll have to deal with them."

"Only if we stay here. If we're gone, they won't know where to find us."

"Nazrin finds things," Utsuho said. "That's what she does. She'll be able to track us down. It's too bad she'll be against us; she could've helped us find Reimu. Actually, she may have begun looking for Reimu on her own if she hadn't run into trouble; finding Reimu is probably why she was here."

"So our first fight with actual people is soon, then."

"Yes, but I don't know how soon. They'll come, but Nazrin saw us fight the twisted. They'll be hostile towards me, but they shouldn't think we're related to the twisted. So I think they'll confront us at some point, but exactly when is anybody's guess. We'll just have to deal with them when they do. We have gone over this, Cirno. You knew we'd have to deal with this sort of thing."

"Yeah, I know," Cirno said. "It's just that talking about something like this is different than actually being faced with it. But yes, you're right. If they get in our way, we'll just beat them. Anyways, what do we do right now?"

"It's getting dark," Utsuho noted. "Let's stay here tonight. It's as good a place as anywhere else, and in addition, I wouldn't be surprised if Reimu returns at some point. We'll move on tomorrow, but we can at least give her tonight. As for tomorrow, I'm not sure. I don't want to go from person to person any more than you do, but if we can't think of anything else, we may end up doing exactly-what the hell?"

Cirno felt it, too. "Someone's coming this way, and fast."

"Not Reimu returning. She wouldn't be moving that quickly. This person's on the run from something."

"I don't sense anything, though. No other people, and no twisted. I'd say that something scared the shit out of whoever it is. You think it was a twisted attack?"

"I don't know. We'll just have to ask."

* * *

The person came into view before long, and this one was somebody Cirno recognized. "That's… China?"

"Hong Meiling," Utsuho said. "Where'd she get that nickname, anyways?"

"Don't know. Not important right now."

"True."

"You think she's looking for Reimu?"

"Most likely. But she's found us instead."

Hong soon arrived at the shrine, clearly panicked. "Reimu? Reimu! Rei-" She cut off as she caught sight of Cirno and Utsuho. "Wait, Cirno? And you're the… the hell-raven girl. You died! How are you- shit, you didn't… what did you do with Reimu?"

"Nothing," Utsuho said. "Calm-"

Hong attacked. Utsuho charged straight through the initial blast, taking advantage of Hong's surprise at the move to grab her and throw her to the ground. Before Hong could get up, Cirno encased her in ice. "Stay there until you cool off a little. Um, pun not intended."

Hong struggled against the ice, but any progress she made was promptly undone by Cirno. Eventually, Hong stopped struggling. "Fine, you got me. Now what?"

"How about you tell us what has you in such a panic," Utsuho said. "Was it the twisted?"

Hong hadn't heard the term before, of course, but she clearly didn't have any trouble figuring out what it referred to. "Yes. Why do you care?"

"We're not your enemies," Utsuho said. "We're here to take care of the twisted."

"Why should I believe you?"

"You don't have to," Utsuho said. "Just tell us what we want to know, and we'll let you go. What happened?"

"The 'twisted', as you call them, attacked the mansion," Hong said. "I- we all fought them, but then… I don't know what happened. Flandre came up and joined the fight, but then she and Sakuya got… they went crazy. Crazier than usual, in Flandre's case. I'm surprised the mansion is still standing. But they- they-"

Cirno and Utsuho waited for Hong to continue. "I don't know what happened," Hong said eventually. "All the twisted were taken care of, but Flandre and Sakuya kept going. They… they just… they…"

The pair remained silent, and eventually, Hong got it out. "They killed Patchouli. Then they… I thought they were going to kill Remilia, but they didn't. Then all three of them turned to me, and I… I just…"

"You panicked and ran," Utsuho said. "Understandable."

"Understandable? That's all you have to say? They killed her! They just killed her!"

"Panic will not help anything," Utsuho said. "But we're not here to tell you how to act. Did they actually attack you, or did you think they were going to?"

"Yes, they attacked me! Why do you care?"

"I wanted to clarify that part," Utsuho said. "I-"

"Incoming," Cirno said. "Three of them. Do you think it's…"

"Most likely," Utsuho said. "Meiling, I told you we'd let you go if you told us what we wanted to know. I intend to keep my word, but first, answer this: where do you plan to go?"

"Where will I go? Why? What are you going to do?"

"Fight them. Don't worry; we'll refrain from killing them."

"And you expect me to just leave after hearing that?"

"What else can you do?" Utsuho asked her. "You're far below even their level, much less ours. If you fight them, you'll die. Let us handle this."

"And why should I trust you?"

Cirno removed the ice encasing Hong. "Because we kept our word," she said. "We can do this. You just find somewhere to go."

Hong considered this for a moment. "Fine. But she made a good point earlier. Where do I go?"

"Head underground," Utsuho said. "They're preparing to resist a potential twisted attack. Find an oni named Yuugi and tell her I sent you."

"All right," Hong said after a moment. "But if you… just please try not to hurt them."

* * *

"I hope you have a plan," Cirno said after Hong left. "We may outmatch them, but in a real fight, Sakuya and Flandre can take us. Either one could."

"I know," Utsuho said. "We'll have to win on the first strike. I'll take Sakuya. You take Flandre. Remilia won't be a problem. I'll make the first move. Once I move, you hit Flandre hard. We'll try not to kill anyone, so just knock her unconscious."

"And how do I do that? She's a vampire, you know."

"Going for the head should still work fine. And don't hold back; you don't have to worry about causing brain damage. I have to worry about that, but you don't."

"I'm not sure Sakuya's actually human," Cirno said. "And even if she is, she's a lot tougher than humans usually are. I think you can hit her hard enough to knock her out without causing permanent damage. I'm more worried that we won't get a chance to make our move. What if Sakuya stops time right when she sees us? Or Flandre-"

"If they could do it," Utsuho said, "they would have done it to Meiling. That's why I wanted to make sure they'd actually attacked her. I wanted confirmation that they were indeed trying to kill her. If Sakuya could have stopped time on her or Flandre could have just destroyed her, they would have. Which tells me that for some reason, they can't."

"What are you thinking?"

"That they truly have gone crazy. That they can't think clearly. That they can't focus enough to use their true abilities. We'll fight them as though they can, though, just in case."

"Right," Cirno said. "Okay, then. You ready?"

"I'm ready. Let's do this."


	4. Chapter 4: Scarlet

**Author's note:** I've been forgetting to mention this, but for this story, I'm basing Cirno's appearance on the way she appears in Hisotensoku, as opposed to Great Fairy Wars. Which means that she's not as tiny as in GFW; she's basically human-sized (a human child, perhaps, but still human-sized).

* * *

**Chapter 4  
**_Scarlet_

Remilia landed in front of them, with Flandre and Sakuya behind her. _What happened to them?_ Cirno wondered. _Flandre looks even scarier than usual. And Sakuya looks the same way._

Utsuho's thoughts were on a different track. _Remilia's saner than the other two. Is she why they haven't attacked yet? They want to, clearly; they certainly seem bloodthirsty. But they're holding back. Are they waiting for something? Something from Remilia?_

"Well, well," Remilia said, "I have to say, it's surprising to find you here. I thought you two were dead. But that's not important. Where's China?"

"Gone," Utsuho said. "We told her to run. She knows she can't fight you."

"And I suppose you think you can?"

"Damn right!" Cirno said.

"Ah, Cirno. Still haven't learned, I see."

"Don't underestimate us," Utsuho said. "We can most certainly take you."

Remilia laughed. "I command fate. It is your destiny to fall here."

"Screw destiny." Utsuho detonated a small and focused but strong blast behind herself, channeling its force into her (while preventing it from actually harming her, of course) to propel her forward much faster than she could have accelerated on her own. She ran directly into Sakuya and crashed her into the ground, unconscious.

Cirno moved as soon as she saw Utsuho move. She used the same trick to blast herself forward, but Flandre'd had an instant more to react than Sakuya, and she hit Cirno head-on with a powerful beam. Cirno kept going straight through the beam, forming a large hammer of ice. She spun herself around rapidly, channeling her momentum into one extremely strong blow to Flandre's head and knocking the vampire out.

"What about you?" Cirno said as she and Utsuho turned to face Remilia. "Do you still think you can take us?"

"I must admit," Remilia said, "that was better than I expected. I didn't think you could take a blast like that. It would seem you've gotten a lot tougher. But do you truly think that will be enough?"

"Let's go, then," Cirno said. "You and me. A one-on-one danmaku battle."

"You've got guts, don't you? You don't seem to be any smarter, though."

"We'll see about that. Field of Engagement!"

The change was, as always, clearly visible. A substantial area was now enclosed by an odd-looking shimmering effect that obscured the view beyond the area. The shimmering marked the edge of a danmaku battlefield; Cirno had called it in in preparation for the fight with Remilia.

"A destiny of failure doesn't give you pause?"

"If that's fate," Cirno said, "then I'll just have to defy fate."

"It's true," Remilia said. "Even fate can be challenged. But there is no fate at work here. This battle is over; I do not intend to fight you."

"Could've fooled me."

"Ah, but did I strike even once?"

"Um… good point. Field down! So if you don't want to fight," Cirno said as the shimmering border disappeared, "then why was there a fight?"

"Do you truly think I could have stopped them from attacking?"

"They didn't attack," Utsuho pointed out. "We struck before they had a chance to. They were waiting to attack, probably for some sort of signal from you. And you certainly seemed eager for a fight."

"If I hadn't," Remilia said, "I'd probably be dead by now."

* * *

_It was hard, dealing with what had happened. And I think it was even harder for Utsuho than it was for me. After all, we were living in the Palace of the Earth Spirits, where she'd lived with the ones she lost. She must have been reminded of them all the time. But then, maybe she found that it helped her. I don't know._

_It's funny, really. I was a child for many, many years, but it took only one event to end that. Of course, it was a major event, both for me and for Utsuho. Our lives as we knew them ended that day. Although it wasn't until a few days later, when we disposed of Daiyousei's body, that we developed a new direction for ourselves._

_The training was hard, easily the hardest thing I've ever done. I was tired all the time, and there were days where I hurt more than I ever had before. And I would assume that it was the same for Utsuho. But it was also very satisfying, and as time went on, I began to find it enjoyable. And, of course, the results were undeniable._

_I did have the thought that I was putting so much into the training as a way to distract myself from my loss, but I think I always knew that wasn't true, and I don't think it was true for Utsuho, either. We put so much effort into our training not to distract us from what we'd lost, but because of what we'd lost. We couldn't do anything for them, anything to save them; we could only run. Neither of us wanted to have _

* * *

to run again. And now, we don't have to.

"You have some explaining to do, I think," Utsuho said.

"Yes," Remilia agreed. "Did China tell you anything?"

"She told us that the twisted-that's what we call them-attacked. She said that you tried to fight them off. And she told us that Sakuya and Flandre killed Patcholli."

'It's all true," Remilia said.

"What happened to them?"

"I'm not completely certain why they went crazy," Remilia said, "but I'll tell you what went on. China, Patchy, and I were doing well against the things-twisted, right? We were doing well against them, but Sakuya wasn't. She was trying to freeze them in time, but it wasn't working. And she was starting to act weird, but I was distracted, because that's when Flandre joined the fight. Except that her power didn't work, either. She tried to destroy them, but she couldn't. She just kept trying, and then she started acting weird. The more she and Sakuya tried, the crazier they looked. And then they…

"They just went berserk. Both of them. They weren't trying to directly stop or destroy the things anymore; they simply attacked, blasting the twisted with everything they had until there were no more. That's when they… when they killed Patchoulli. And then they turned towards me."

"But they didn't attack."

"They didn't attack," Remilia said. "I think some part of them still recognized me. But that part was losing. I knew they'd attack before long. But then I realized that they hadn't attacked each other. So I played a hunch."

"A hunch?"

"I went for China myself. And as I'd expected, they followed my lead. As long as I showed the same kind of aggression they had, they had no desire to attack me. I don't know if that would have been enough on its own to save me, but combined with whatever part of them remembered, it was. So I led them after China. I didn't want to, but I thought she'd probably run here, and I hoped that Reimu could help. But she's not here, is she?"

"She's not," Utsuho said. "It's just us."

"You managed to defeat them, though. Reimu was my first thought of someone who could beat them, but it's you two I found. And you beat them."

"We tried not to do any permanent damage," Utsuho said. "I'm sure Flandre especially is completely fine, although I'm not so sure about Sakuya; I hit her fairly hard."

"She'll be all right. She's tough. Anyways, I needed someone capable of beating them, and Reimu's who I thought of."

"Why didn't you just do your fate thing?" Cirno asked. "You know, make them fated to lose the battle, regardless of who they're fighting."

"For one," Remilia said, "even fate is not certain. Although I would have done it anyways, since it would certainly tilt the odds in my favor. But think about it. Sakuya went insane when she attempted to use her direct power, her control over time. And it happened to Flandre when she tried to use her direct power of destruction. What if trying to use my direct power, my control of fate, caused the same thing to happen to me?"

"No," Utsuho said, coming to a realization. "No, that's not it. It's not attempting to use 'direct powers', as you called them. That's not what does it."

"What do you mean?"

"Cirno and I may still be alive," Utsuho said, "but all the other victims of the first attack are, as far as we know, dead. Even the fairies, somehow. But Satori told me something before she died. She told me that she couldn't read the things. She said this meant that they don't have minds, but… that's not it. They may indeed not have minds, but that's not why Satori couldn't read them."

"Then what is?" Cirno asked.

"Think about it. Satori's mind-reading power couldn't affect them directly. Sakuya and Flandre's powers couldn't affect them directly. Immortality doesn't seem to work against them, either. And I tried to directly affect one, too, remember? That didn't work, either."

"But you haven't gone crazy."

"I only tried it once," Utsuho reminded her. "Sakuya and Flandre tried it over and over."

"That's what did it?" Remilia said softly. "That's why they went crazy?"

"Most likely. We can hit them with as much as we want to with no problem, but if you try to affect them directly, it… affects your mind."

"I told them to do it!" Remilia exclaimed. "I'm the reason they did it! Are you saying it's my fault?"

"Did you know what would happen?" Cirno said. "Did you have any reason to even suspect it? Or that something like that even could happen?" Silence. "Then no, it's not your fault. And let me ask you this: would they have tried anyways?"

"I… yes," Remilia said. "Flandre, certainly. Sakuya may not have tried it so many times, but yes."

"Then it's certainly not your fault. Although it really doesn't matter what I say, does it? You have to convince yourself than it's not your fault."

"That's… I… well, then. It seems you have changed after all, Cirno."

"I know."

"What's your intention, Remilia?" Utsuho asked. "What do you plan to do now?"

"Find a way to fix Flandre and Sakuya," Remilia said without hesitation. "I don't know how I'll do it, but I will do it."

"I see. You might want to try Eientei."

"That's a good idea, actually," Remilia said. "I think I'll-"

Utsuho cut her off. "We have incoming. Twisted."

"Hold on," Remilia said, "how can you tell?"

"I can sense them. Cirno and I both can."

"You can do that?"

"We've spent the past several years training," Utsuho said. "We can do a lot. Now take Flandre and Sakuya and get going. We'll handle the twisted."

"Understood. I'd like to bend fate in your favor, but…"

"It involves the twisted," Utsuho said. "We understand."

"We'll be fine," Cirno said. "Don't worry. We're a hell of a lot tougher than you remember us."

"All right." Remilia took hold of Flandre and Sakuya and rose into the air. "Good luck," she said as she flew off.

* * *

"Is it just me," Cirno said, "or does this shrine seem to be attracting trouble?"

"The twisted are likely a coincidence," Utsuho said, "but yes, I would expect people to show up here. Reimu has always been the one to solve everyone's problems, you know."

"True. But I still think we're asking for trouble by staying here. Even if there aren't any more twisted, there may be more people."

"I want that," Utsuho said. "I want to have a good chance to talk to someone about the current situation. It's been a little while since our last recon trip, after all. For one thing, we don't know how long the twisted have been around for this time around. I was hoping I could get the information from Remilia, but our… incoming guests took that chance away from us. I'm hoping we'll have a chance with the next person we meet. I'm hoping that- well, it seems as though we'll be meeting another person sooner than I thought."

Cirno felt the approaching person, too. "Yeah. Whoever it is is heading this way. Let's take out the twisted before the newcomer gets here."

"Agreed. Ready?"

"Ready."

"Good, because here they are."

* * *

Utsuho blasted the twisted surrounding her away. Some of them burst, but others remained, and they charged. Utsuho let them get close, then blasted them away again. _They certainly fight mindlessly. Or these ones do, at least. Haven't noticed it before, but then, I haven't been looking for it._

By the third blast, the group was finished. Utsuho targeted a nearby pair of twisted. She blasted herself at one of them, adding a blast of energy to her strike. It was enough to destroy the target, and Utsuho repeated the move on the other, destroying it as well.

Utsuho sensed three more twisted coming from behind her. She spun around, ready to blast them, and…

She caught sight of the one in the middle, and…

* * *

The sensing ability Cirno and Utsuho had developed could tell them where people and objects were, but telling one person from another was a different matter. Different people felt essentially the same to them, and for the most part, couldn't be told apart. Except when it came to each other. They had developed the ability together, and had been with each other long enough that they each knew exactly what the other felt like. They were certain they could instantly identify each other in any crowd, no matter how large. Which meant that even if the twisted didn't feel different from people, Cirno would have known it was Utsuho who stopped moving.

Cirno finished off the last twisted that was coming at her and spun towards Utsuho. Utsuho had three twisted coming at her, but she seemed frozen in place. And then Cirno got a look at the middle one.

Cirno hadn't been able to recognize Orin's likeness in the twisted, but this one she did recognize. There were portraits of them in the Palace of the Earth Spirits, but Orin had preferred to stay a cat, so Cirno hadn't really known what her humanoid form looked like. But that wasn't an issue here. And, of course, the object this one had was distinctive, although Cirno doubted that the twisted's reproduction actually had the ability the real one had signified. But it was clear what it was supposed to be: the third eye of Satori Komeiji.


	5. Chapter 5: A Question of Resolve

________

**Chapter 5  
**_A Question of Resolve_

"Utsuho!"

Utsuho didn't react at all, and the twisted Satori slammed into her, knocking her to the ground. It and the other two twisted attacked, but they only landed a couple hits before Cirno was there.

Cirno slammed all three of them with ice, knocking them back. She quickly formed a protective barrier of ice around Utsuho, then turned her attention back to the enemy.

The three twisted charged, but they didn't even get close. Cirno hit them fast and hard, and they quickly burst. She took out the few scattered twisted left, then finished off the ones she'd frozen. Only when all the twisted were gone did Cirno destroy the ice barrier around Utsuho, who had gotten to her feet.

Cirno rushed over to her. "Are you all right?"

"I… I'm not hurt. It takes a lot more than that to truly injure any youkai. And we're beyond most of them. But…"

"I took care of it," Cirno said. "Just like I told you I would."

"I know it wasn't her," Utsuho said. "I know it wasn't her. But I still couldn't… I just…"

"It's okay," Cirno said. "I understand."

Utsuho let out a cry as she fell to the ground. "Damn it! I can't do it! I can't- it's not her, but I saw it, and I couldn't-"

"So I did," Cirno said. "You're not alone, Utsuho."

"What are these things?What are they? They take the forms of- they- !"

"Utsuho!"

"I can't do this! I can't! I know it's not really them, but I just… I just… I…"

________

_

* * *

_

I wanted to say something to Utsuho, anything, but I just didn't know what I could say that would help. I could tell her over and over that it wasn't really Satori, I could tell her over and over that she wasn't alone, but it wouldn't matter. She had to convince herself of that.

_Seeing the likeness of Orin and Satori in the twisted was extremely distressing for her. I understood that. I had, however, thought she'd recovered from the shock of seeing the twisted Orin. But I was wrong. She'd put up a strong front, but inside, she had begun to question her resolve, her ability to carry this through to the end. She began to doubt herself, and seeing the twisted Satori only made things worse._

_Utsuho and I had lived together for years, and yes, we had become quite close over that time. But it wasn't until that moment, when Utsuho's doubts came to the front, that I realized how I truly felt about her, how I loved her._

_I wanted to do something, anything, to help her. But I didn't know what to do. Utsuho was distressed and falling into self-doubt and despair, and I didn't know what to do. I just stood there, trying desperately to think of something, anything I could do to help. But I soon had other concerns._

_

* * *

_

Damn it,

Cirno thought as the person approached,

__

_____I'd forgotten about you. Do you have to interrupt now?_

As the person closed in, Cirno recognized her, although she'd only seen her a few times. It was that other shrine maiden, Sanae Kotiya.

"You?" Sanae said as she landed in front of the pair. "But you died!"

Utsuho looked up at her. "S-Sanae."

"Utsuho. What's going on here?"

"What do you want, Sanae?" Cirno asked.

"I came here because we ran into Nazrin, and she said you were here. Lady Kanako sent me to investigate. And now I've found you. What are you doing here?"

"We were hoping to find Reimu," Cirno said. "But she's not here."

"Why should I believe that? You, Cirno, I don't know you very well, but Utsuho, last time you gained power, you tried to incinerate Gensokyo. Now Nazrin tells us you've gained power again. It's bad enough that you tried to burn the surface world, but to take the gift Lady Kanako gave you and use it for such a purpose?"

_So that's what this is really about,_ Cirno thought. _She's got a personal grudge against Utsuho over that._

"And now!" Sanae continued. "You were finally using it as intended, and then you just vanish! And you weren't dead! And now you're back! Why?"

"Because they came back," Cirno said.

"They? You mean those… things? You expect me to believe you were missing for so long just because you were waiting for them?"

Cirno walked up to Sanae, rising above the ground to look her straight in the eye. "It's the truth. We were training to fight them." _But you don't care, do you? You've had anger towards Utsuho for a long time, haven't you? And now you have an excuse and a chance to take it out on her._

"The truth?" Sanae said. "The truth is that Satori and Orin and all of them died! You think I'll believe that the only survivor just happened to be Utsuho? The one who would've had to stay behind and shut the plant down?"

"They protected her to give her that time!"

"Then she got them killed! She took too long, and they died!"

Utsuho just let out another cry.

_Oh, not cool._ "Don't you dare say that!" Cirno said.

"Why not? It's the truth, isn't it? Or did you even care, Utsuho? Did it not matter to you if they died?"

"Don't say that! Don't you dare say that! Of Course she cares! She can't even bring herself to fight things that look like them!"

"You've seen that effect? That some of them look like people who've died? And because of that, Utsuho can't fight them?"

"What's your point?"

"You say you were training to fight the things, but now she can't even bring herself to do that? Maybe you're not planning anything, then. Maybe you just can't carry through with anything! Even your plan to incinerate Gensokyo never got underway!"

"Are you going to keep this up," Cirno said, "or is there an actual point to you being here?"

"I told you why I'm here."

"And what do you plan to do?"

"Put a stop to whatever you're up to."

"We're not 'up to' anything." _Not that you care. You're not leaving until you have a chance at Utsuho. But she's not up for a fight right now. I'll have to fight you in her place._

"If that's true," Sanae said, "then leave. Go back underground and stay out of the way. Do not involve yourselves in this any further."

"And if we don't?"

"If you don't," Sanae said, "then I will be forced to make you."

"You'd love that, wouldn't you?"

"Excuse me?"

"You just want a shot at Utsuho," Cirno said.

Sanae laughed. "And what's wrong with that? First she plans to destroy Gensokyo, and then she abandons her duties! After getting everyone around her killed!"

"Their deaths were not her fault," Cirno said.

"Yes they were! She got them killed. It is her fault. Do you understand that, Utsuho? It's your incompetence that killed them."

"Get out of here, Sanae," Cirno said.

Sanae laughed again. "Or what? You'll make me? You can't take me. Now, I'll give you one last chance. Leave. Now."

"No."

Cirno backed away from Sanae as both spun to face Utsuho. Utsuho's eyes were fixed on Sanae as she got to her feet, and there was no sign of the despair of even just a moment ago. All Cirno saw in her eyes was determination.

"Your god gave me power," Utsuho said. "Power I never asked for. Power she forced into me without explaining herself. I wanted answers, but she gave me none. And you know what happened? I lost it. I went crazy. I admit that. But that was temporary, and I know that what I tried to do was wrong.

"You know what happened next, Sanae. My questions were finally answered. I was told to use my power to run your 'power plant'. Your god forced this on me. Do you understand that? I was given no choice. Just power. And then I was expected to use it as instructed. And you know what? I did. Ever since I was given that power, my life was no longer mine. But I did my job to the best of my ability.

"Your god took my entire life from me without asking," Utsuho continued as she slowly approached Sanae, "but I said nothing. And then they attacked the plant, and everyone I was close to was killed. And you have the nerve to call this my fault? To blame me for their deaths? And you accuse me of abandoning my 'duty'?" She stopped right in front of Sanae. "Well, you can tell your god to take that 'duty' and shove it up her ass, because I'm done with it."

"How dare you!"

"How dare _I_? Your god took my life away from me, and you ask how _I_ dare? I did my job, and it was while doing so that everyone died. And you know what I did? I shut the plant down, and I ran. I could do nothing else. That's why I've been training myself, so I do not have to run again. Cirno and I promised to get stronger together, so that neither of us would ever have to run away again. And so that when the things returned, we could fight them and destroy them.

Utsuho took a step back. "I almost forgot that resolve. When they took on the likeness of Orin and Satori, I wavered. I almost abandoned my promise. And maybe you're right. Maybe I can't do this on my own." She looked over at Cirno. "But I'm not on my own. I have Cirno, and she has me. Neither of us is alone. Not since we found each other. We're going to stand against this threat together, and we're going to defeat it. And if you want us to stop, you'll have to make us. Field of engagement!"

Utsuho slowly rose into the air as the battlefield border shimmered into existence. "You do have loyalty to your god, and that is an admirable trait. But I do not follow your god. I have chosen my path. If you believe in the path you have chosen as strongly as I believe in the path I have chosen, then stand against me in battle, and we will see whose resolve is stronger!"

Sanae rose into the air to face her. "I will not allow your continued insults to Lady Kanako to go unanswered!"

"Then let the battle begin."

* * *

As Sanae and Utsuho rose higher into the air, Cirno formed a block of ice with a nice her-shaped indent for her to lie down in. _This is Utsuho's fight,_ she thought as she positioned herself comfortably. _I'll just lie down and enjoy the show._

* * *

"Is a five-card battle acceptable?" Utsuho said.

"Bring it on," Sanae said. "I can take everything you can throw at me. Attack me with everything you have. I will show you the power you face!"

"With pleasure," Utsuho said. "Let's open with a bang, shall we?"

-Sun Sign: Sunfire-

"Take this!"

-Wonder Sign: Night of Bright Guest Stars-

Sanae's spellcard created a 'danmaku node' on either side of her. The nodes began firing lasers in a pattern spinning around themselves, clockwise from the one to Sanae's left (and Utsuho's right), and counter-clockwise from the other. Any lasers that hit the left or right side of the battlefield bounced off up to a total of twice per laser. At the same time, Sanae regularly fired a good-sized, blue, fiery bullet at Utsuho's current position.

Utsuho's spellcard began with her firing in a basic spread pattern, a common component among the spellcards of more powerful individuals. She threw a large star into the center of the battlefield. After a second, the star exploded, sending a dense spray of fireballs in every direction. At the same time, Utsuho formed another star, tossing it into the center to repeat the process.

Both spellcards had the standard time limit of sixty seconds. As was common from more powerful individuals, both spellcards' pace intensified as time went on. Sanae's nodes began firing more rapidly, and she did as well. And Utsuho's stars came more frequently.

It was at the 35 seconds in that Sanae took a hit. The battlefield, as was standard, was instantly cleared of all bullets from both combatants, although Utsuho's spellcard would continue until either she was hit or its timer ran out. "A lucky hit!" Sanae said. "Now try this!"

-Sea Opening: Moses's Miracle-

Waves of energy came down either side from Sanae's end of the battlefield towards Utsuho's. The waves were such that the open space between them was in the S-shape representative of a river. Sanae fired twin streams of bullets towards Utsuho's current position, waiting only an instant before firing another, necessitating fast movement on Utsuho's part. And as Sanae moved, the waves adjusted so that Sanae was always in the center of the 'river' between them, although their change lagged a second or two behind Sanae's movement.

Sanae took a hit at almost the exact instant the timer on Utsuho's spellcard ran out. "Looks like we're both moving on," Utsuho said.

-Star Sign: Flame of the Stars-

"And here's mine!"

-Great Miracle: Yasaka's Divine Wind-

Utsuho formed a star and tossed it towards Sanae's end of the battlefield at an angle. As the star moved, fireballs regularly shot outward from the star in a circular pattern. When the star hit the side of the battlefield, it bounced off towards the other side, still moving towards Sanae's end of the field. It continued bouncing between the sides until it reached the end behind Sanae and vanished. A couple seconds after its first bounce, Utsuho formed and tossed a second star, although at a different angle.

Sanae began firing circles of mid-sized bullets outwards from herself. As she did, bullets appeared around her. Beginning from the center, the bullets expanded outwards, forming a ring of curved streams, with new bullets appearing as this happened.

Sanae took a hit at the halfway mark, just as the pace began to pick up. "Damn it! Try this, then!"

-Miracle Sign: Miracle Fruit-

Eight large bullets shot out from Sanae. A second later, they exploded into circles of six-bullet streams. As the streams flew outwards, Sanae shot another set of eight, repeating the process. But she didn't keep it going for long, as she soon took another hit from Utsuho. "Okay, that's enough! You're not defeating this!"

-Cross Sign: Death and Rebirth-

Sanae fired bullets in a standard spread pattern. As she did so, she formed several large crosses and threw them outward in a spiral. After a couple seconds of their outward spiral, the crosses exploded into clouds of bullets as Sanae formed a new cross spiral. The bullet clouds continued the outward spiral, reforming into crosses a couple seconds later. Each spiral ring continued this pattern of bursting and reforming until reaching the edge of the battlefield and vanishing. And this, Utsuho saw, was a 'timeless' spellcard, one without a time limit (99 seconds was the given limit, but the number did not count down). Only the most powerful individuals could make and use such spellcards, and they were limited to one per battle under the standard rules. As a result of their tendency to be used last, they were also known as 'final' spellcards.

Utsuho took a hit early on, being surprised by the bullet clouds reforming into crosses. "Well, well. Looks like you finally managed to hit me. Well, try this one!"

-Inferno Sign: Ring of Stars-

Multiple stars spun outwards from Utsuho in a spiral pattern, leaving dense trails of fireballs in their paths as the next set of stars formed, which then spread outwards. Sanae had significant difficulty avoiding the stars while simultaneously weaving through fireball clouds as dense as these, and before long, she took a hit.

* * *

"I win," Utsuho said as she and her opponent landed.

"This isn't over yet!" Sanae exclaimed. She prepared to fire a blast, but stopped when she found a sword of ice at her throat.

"Let's not disrespect the outcome, now," Cirno said. "You lost. Deal with it."

"Don't think for a second that this is over," Sanae said as she stepped back. "I'll be coming for you again. Right," she said to herself, "I have to catch up with them. Okay… Eientei." She flew off.

* * *

"Well, then," Utsuho said. "There goes another chance for some information. Although she probably wouldn't have been cooperative anyways."

"She said Eientei," Cirno pointed out. "Is Kanako heading for Eientei?"

"Most likely."

"Should we follow?"

"I have no interest in whatever conflict the two of them have. Although visiting Eientei might be a good idea. We need to find someone with information on the twisted, and Eirin's a good starting point."

"Then do we go now? Or should we wait until morning?"

"I doubt we'll get there in time to affect whatever Kanako's up to; that's likely the case for Sanae, as well. Still, it may be best to go now."

"I'd say we should certainly get away from this shrine. It seems to attract trouble. We can check back later to see if Reimu's returned."

"True," Utsuho said. "All right, then. Let's go."

"Right. Um, Utsuho?"

"Yeah?"

"Someone saw the battle," Cirno said. "I sensed a person in the area. I wasn't able to catch sight of the person, so I don't know who it was, but someone did see the battle. The person left as I went over to find out who it was."

"Hmm… well, I suppose there's nothing we can do about it. We should get moving. And Cirno?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

* * *

**Yeah, am I the only one who thought Kanako's actions in regards to Utsuho were kind of a dick move? Anyways, a few notes on the battle.**

**1: Yes, I made up Utsuho's spellcards (and Sanae's last spellcard). She has new ones now, remember?**

**2: I based the pre-existing spellcards on their Hard mode versions (except Miracle Fruit, of course).**

**3: I realize that some of the names for Sanae's spellcards aren't precicely correct. I thought they sounded better this way (expect me to do the same thing in any future danmaku battles).**


	6. Chapter 6: Those who are Feared

**Chapter 6  
**_Those who are Feared_

Cirno sent another ice spear at the final twisted, and it burst. "That's another group down."

"Our third since leaving the shrine," Utsuho noted. "And we're in the forest now. Hopefully the human village hasn't attracted too much trouble. Keine and Mokou may not be enough to fend off a twisted attack. They could handle groups like these, but I doubt they could handle an attack like the one on the underground. Although they could probably get help from Eientei; despite Mokou's ongoing conflict with Kaguya, they're on fairly good terms."

"Which brings us back to what you were about to say before the fight," Cirno said. "About what to expect if we have to fight at Eientei."

"Yes," Utsuho said. "Come on, let's get moving again."

* * *

"There's really only one person with a nasty trick," Utsuho said as the two of them flew above the forest, "and that's the lunar rabbit Reisen. Don't look into her eyes; she can drive you mad if you do. As long as you avoid that, she shouldn't be a problem.

"The toughest ones in a fight will be Eirin and Kaguya. Kaguya I know is immortal, but I'm not sure about Eirin. She wouldn't die of age anyways, of course, but I don't know if it's possible to kill her, or if she too has used the 'Hourai Elixer'. Anyways, both of them should be considered extremely dangerous in battle. They can't match us in power, of course, but they've had enough time to completely master the power they do have. Especially Kaguya, due to her feud with Mokou-and Mokou's the same way, of course. Anyways, they'll be the tough ones. If we have to fight, we should take out any others first, as they'll go down quickly. Then we can worry about Eirin and Kaguya. On the plus side, we don't have to worry about holding back against Kaguya. Eirin, maybe, but we know Kaguya's immortal, so don't worry about trying to avoid killing-already?"

Cirno felt it, too. Another group of twisted. But… "there's a person, too" Cirno said. "Someone's fighting these twisted. And apparently," she continued as several twisted vanished from her sense, "kicking the shit out of them. What do you think, Utsuho? Should we check it out?"

"At this rate," Utsuho said, "the twisted'll all be gone by the time we get there. But I would like to know just who's beating them that badly. So yes, let's check it out."

* * *

The twisted were indeed all destroyed by the time the pair arrived. The person responsible seemed ready to leave, but stopped as she saw Cirno and Utsuho approaching. She waited as they approached and landed in front of her.

"This isn't someone I know," Utsuho said. "Sorry." A pause. "Um, Cirno?"

"I know her," Cirno said. "At least I think I do. There's something… different about her, though. I just can't figure out what."

"Well, who is she?"

"Her na-" Cirno cut off as it hit her. "Wait, you're not wearing your… so the stories were true, then."

"Somewhat, at least," the person said. "But I believe you were about to introduce me to your friend here. Although you don't have to tell me who she is; I've figured that one out."

"Um, right. Utsuho, this is Rumia."

"A name I've heard before," Utsuho said. "I seem to recall hearing something about an amulet of some kind. Is that what she's not wearing, Cirno?"

Cirno nodded. "It was a ribbon she always wore. She never took it off. Ever. Rumor had it that it couldn't be removed, that it was actually a sealing amulet."

"And this is true," Rumia said. "It was indeed an amulet. Essentially, it sealed me away within myself. With the seal in place, I was nothing more than a weak child."

"You probably realize that sounds suspicious," Utsuho said. "Why would you be… sealed away, or whatever?"

"If you're thinking I'm evil or something, you're wrong. Although you wouldn't be the only ones to have that thought."

"I never said anything about you being evil."

"I know," Rumia said. "I'm launching into my explanation here. Anyways, blah blah blah, wouldn't be the only ones to have that thought. And I will not deny that I did things that were… questionable, shall we say. But many people do such things. I was no worse than other youkai."

"But something made you stand out. What?"

"Fear. And I do not mean such things as a wariness of potential danger or of the unknown, nor do I mean anything such as a desire to flee from danger. Such fear is perfectly normal and, as long as you don't let it control you, beneficial. But I am not talking about fear of that kind; I'm talking about _fear_. The constant sense of vulnerability. The knowledge of complete helplessness. The kind of terror that comes from knowing that if you are targeted, there is nothing you can do.

"Among the people in this world, there are those who fear, and those who are feared. I am one of the latter. And I am not ashamed to admit that I liked it that way. And yes, I did… encourage it sometimes, mainly through displays of power. And that, moost simply, is why they feared me. Power. They saw my power, and it terrified them. Darkness has always had an association with evil, which I think played a part-even if the association is completely wrong-but that was not the only reason. They were afraid of me because they knew they couldn't do anything to stop me. There was nobody that could match my level of power. That is why they were afraid."

"But you were defeated eventually, right? I would assume it was a cooperative effort, then."

"That was the plan," Rumia said. "It was decided that I needed to die. A certain Yukari Yakumo gathered together the most powerful youkai she could find and led them against me. Their intent was to kill me, and against that group, even my power would not have been enough. They were coming to kill me, and I knew they would succeed. It would cost them, but they would succeed. But as I knew I would die, they knew it would cost them. So they were willing to listen when I proposed a compromise of sorts."

"Hold on," Cirno said. "Are you saying you sealed yourself?"

"No, but it was my idea. I knew I would die otherwise, so even being sealed was preferable. And although Yukari would have preferred my death, she decided to accept leaving me alive in order to prevent the deaths they would suffer in the process of killing me, deaths that may even have included Yukari herself."

"And how'd you know she wouldn't just kill you once you were sealed?"

"I didn't," Rumia said, "but I did take a couple of… precautions. First of all, the amulet was created by a neutral third party. And I made Yukari swear not to harm me after the sealing."

"And you just trusted her to keep her word?"

Rumia laughed. "Hardly. I… set things up, shall we say. First of all, I was able to find someone who could tell if Yukari intended to keep her word. Not a mind-reader; an empath. I'm sure she's dead by now; she was human, not youkai. Also, I, um, led people along, shall we say. I told her to swear not to harm me after the sealing, and I did so in a way that put her honor on the line publicly. If she did choose to break her word, well, there would be repercussions. She wouldn't exactly be a trusted figure, I'll put it that way. But even with that, I only allowed the sealing to happen once the empath girl confirmed Yukari's intention to honor the agreement. Yes, it was still a risk, but it was either that or a more certain death, so it was an easy risk to take. And it worked, obviously."

"How did the amulet get removed?" Utsuho asked. "I assume there were substantial safeguards against its removal by anyone, intentional or not."

"That's correct," Rumia said. "It happened a few days ago. I was attacked by the… things."

"We call them twisted."

"An appropriate name. I was attacked by a small group of twisted. Of course, I didn't stand a chance against them in my weakened, childlike state. I tried to run, but they blocked my escape and attacked."

"Of course," Utsuho said.

"Ah, so you have noticed it. Yes, the twisted have a sort of… disruptive effect. I think it's what prevents people from affecting them directly, and it's probably also why they can truly kill immortals. And in my case, they disrupted and eventually broke the seal." Rumia grinned. "They didn't last long after that."

"And so now what?" Utsuho asked.

"'Now what?' I don't have any specific plans, you know. I'm not up to anything."

"Why should we believe any of what you said?"

"Ooh, hostile. Are you after a fight? Because I'd be more than willing to oblige. It's been far too long since I had a good fight to the death."

"Cut it, you two!" Cirno said. "Now, Rumia. What exactly are you going to do?"

"Right now, I think it may be a good idea to do something about these 'twisted', but in general? Live. But, you know, I could ask you the same question."

"We're fighting the twisted."

Rumia laughed again. "You don't get it, do you? I saw your fight with that Sanae girl, Utsuho. You are very powerful. And you, Cirno. Would I be correct to assume that you have a similar level of power?"

"Yes," Cirno said. "What, you don't actually think you can take us, do you?"

Another laugh. "Oh, no, that's not what I'm thinking at all. No, I'm talking about something else. You see, your situation is somewhat similar to mine. The two of you are very powerful. You're far above me, at least during the day. In the darkness of night, my power is still significantly above yours, although if you two have come this far, you may very well pass even that point eventually. And, of course, there are two of you; as a pair, you probably could take me, even at night. But what did I just tell you about being feared? Because your power has reached the same level. You are far above anyone else. And don't forget that whole 'burn Gensokyo' thing, Utsuho. You will be among the feared now. Just like I am. So what do you plan to do when they come for you?"

"You've already seen that," Utsuho said. "If anyone stands against us, we're simply going to defeat them in battle. Even if it's a real fight and not just a danmaku battle."

"Ah, but you still don't get it. See, my own situation was similar. I was attacked multiple times, and every time, I fought off my opponents. That's why they teamed up against me. Eventually, you, too, will face such a group. What will you do then? What will you do if faced with such a force determined to kill you? I suppose you, Cirno, won't be any worse off than I was; they'll have no choice but to seal you. But you, Utsuho. They'll come to kill you. What will you do then?"

_

* * *

_

I suppose I wasn't as ready for opposition as I had thought. Rumia was correct; I hadn't considered the potential for a coordinated attack against us. My thoughts had been more concerned with the immediate situation; I had not spared much thought for what would happen afterwards. There would be no such large-scale attack against us for some time, certainly. And it wouldn't happen before the twisted were dealt with, I was sure. But eventually? Yes, what she described was a very possible situation.

_I was of course worried for myself; death is not something most people look forward to. And I also worried for Cirno, but not because of concern for her survival; I knew she wouldn't die. The twisted may be able to truly kill her, but nothing else could do so. But I didn't want her to end up sealed away within herself as Rumia had been. I didn't want to let anything happen to her._

_We had both cared for each other for some time, but it was only then that I realized how I truly felt about Cirno. And I knew, then, that I wasn't going to let anyone seal her away or do anything else. And I wasn't about to let that happen to myself, either._

* * *

It was a little while before Utsuho replied. "I don't know what will happen then," she said eventually, "but there's one thing I do know, and that is that I won't stand down."

"Neither will I," Cirno said.

"I see. That may be a foolish decision, but we will see, I suppose. I don't think you'll have to worry about that sort of cooperative attack until the current situation has been resolved, though. I'd expect some opposition, sure, but not at that level. And the same is true for me."

"If you're saying we shouldn't work to end this," Utsuho said, "then you can just shut the hell up right now."

"Oh, no, that's not what I was saying. In fact, I intend to work towards resolving this situation myself. Perhaps doing so will end up being helpful. After all, people aren't likely to kill someone who just saved them, now, are they? And even if it doesn't work out that way, the twisted are everyone's enemies. And 'everyone' includes me. So I see no reason not to fight them."

"Whatever," Cirno said. "We just want to get rid of these things."

"I see. And I would assume your current destination is Eientei; is that correct?"

Cirno nodded. "It is."

"Well, it's certainly a good choice, but I don't think you'll find anything there. I had the same thought, but after looking into it three days ago, I don't think they're the ones behind this."

"Okay," Utsuho said, "hold on. 'The ones behind this'?"

"Oh, is that not why you're heading there?"

"We're looking for information about the twisted," Cirno said. "What, do you think someone made them?"

"They aren't natural," Rumia said. "They should not exist, and I don't mean that in any sort of moral sense. Things that are not alive or dead, or even anything non-living. And there are the other things, like their appearance or the disruptive effect. Their existence should quite simply not be possible. Such things could not have come into existence naturally; their existence in fact defies nature. But if they can't have formed naturally, then what does that leave?

"I say there is someone responsible for the existence of the twisted because that is the only way such things could come into existence. Although that does not necessarily mean their creation was deliberate; it's quite possible that something was done that led to their existence as an unintended and unforeseen consequence. But either way, someone is responsible. And no, I do not have any idea who it is. I did suspect Eientei, specifically Eirin; if even half the rumors are true, the twisted are very much the sort of thing that might come out of her… experiments. But as I said, I looked into that, and have concluded that Eientei is innocent."

"We're still going there," Utsuho said.

"Oh, go ahead. Do as you like. Perhaps we'll meet again." And with that, she flew away.

* * *

"Well, then," Utsuho said after Rumia had left. "I'm not sure just what the hell to make of that."

"That was not the Rumia I knew," Cirno said. "That was… I don't know what that was, but it wasn't the Rumia I knew."

"You think it's true, then?"

"Yes," Cirno said. "That wasn't the Rumia I knew, but… I think it was Rumia. Although I'm not really sure what's convincing me of that."

"I'm just irritated that she, too, left before I had a chance to ask my questions. Anyways, what we really need to know is if she's a threat."

'I don't think so," Cirno said. "Not to us, certainly. Not right now, at least. She's right about the twisted being everyone's enemies."

"True."

"I'm more worried about what she said about us. We both knew we'd likely run into some trouble, but… do you really think they'll organize against us like that?"

"I don't know," Utsuho said, "but it is possible."

"Then what do we do? Is there some way we can avoid it?"

"No," Utsuho said. "No hiding, right? If we just left and went back underground, if we hid out again, we could probably avoid it, but…"

"We're not going to do that."

"Right. Which means we'll have to take the risk."

"And if they do come for us?"

'Then we deal with it. But right now, we need to focus on the twisted. Come on, let's get going."

_They can come if they want to,_ Utsuho thought as she and Cirno took flight. _But if they do, they'll regret it. They won't do anything to you, Cirno. I won't let them._


	7. Chapter 7: Eientei

**Chapter 7  
**_Eientei_

"Do not approach in the air! Land and approach on foot!"

Eientei had come into sight, and then the voice came. Cirno looked around. "Wha-who said that?"

"It's amplification, I think," Utsuho said. "It's someone from Eientei."

"Why do they want us to walk?"

"I don't know, but let's do what they say. I'd rather not get into a fight."

* * *

Cirno and Utsuho approached the mansion on foot. As they neared it, they saw someone emerge from the mansion and start towards them. "That's Reisen," Utsuho said. "Remember, don't look her in the eyes."

"Stop there," Reisen said once she and the two had drawn close. "Look at me."

Utsuho did turn her head towards Reisen, but she kept her gaze low, avoiding meeting Reisen's. Cirno did the same thing.

"Look me in the eyes," Reisen said.

"No," Utsuho said. "We know what you can do. You'll drive us insane."

"I can do that, but I'm not going to. There are those who are already insane. I must check your minds to ensure that you are not among them."

_Is she referring to what happens if you try to directly affect the twisted?_ Utsuho thought. _Like what happened to Sakuya and Flandre?_ "If you're referring to what I believe you are, then the fact that we are speaking to you instead of attacking should be proof enough."

'Based on what I've seen so far, yes," Reisen replied, "but we're not taking any chances. If you do not allow me to examine you, then you will not be allowed to approach."

"It's okay. You can let her do it."

Reisen spun around to face the speaker. "Remilia."

"She did the same thing with me," Remilia told Cirno and Utsuho.

Maybe," Utsuho said, "but how do we know she didn't do something to you and you just don't know it?"

_This isn't like you, Utsuho,_ Cirno thought. _You're not usually this paranoid. Is it about what Rumia said?_

"If you don't want to," Reisen said, "that's your choice. If that is the case, then please leave."

Cirno stepped forward. "All right. You can do it."

"Cirno!"

Cirno turned to face Utsuho. "We need to get in, right? Get information."

"We can have Eirin come out here."

"And do you really think they'll agree to that?"

"She's right on that one," Reisen said.

"Cirno, don't risk it."

"I believe her," Cirno said. "I don't think she's going to do anything to us." She turned back to Reisen. "Do your thing."

"Fine," Utsuho said. "Do Cirno first. But don't you dare do anything to her, or-"

Remilia cut in. "Or you'll kill her, right? You'll kill Reisen if she does anything to Cirno?"

"No, that wouldn't get me anywhere," Utsuho replied. "I'll just capture Eirin and kill her if Reisen doesn't undo it."

"Um," Reisen said. "Well, uh, I, um... I can't say I approve of that, but I know I'm not going to do anything to her, so I don't know that it really matters. Right, then. Cirno, look me in the eyes."

Cirno rose to Reisen's level and locked eyes with her. After holding position for a couple seconds, Reisen broke eye contact. "You pass," she said, turning to face Utsuho. "Now it's your turn."

"Fine," Utsuho said. She locked eyes with Reisen, with the same result.

"Inconsequential, but fixed," Reisen said. "You're both clear. What is your business here? You mentioned something about wanting to see Eirin, correct?"

"We're here," Utsuho said, "in search of information about the twisted, as we call them. I'm sure you know what I'm referring to."

"Well, I can take you to Eirin, but we don't know much."

"We'd still like to speak with her."

"Then follow me," Reisen said as she led the way towards the mansion.

* * *

Eirin came out the door as Reisen approached it with Cirno, Utsuho, and Remilia. "Ah, Remilia," Eirin said, "there you are. I think Flandre's waking up. You should-ah!"

Remilia didn't even wait for Eirin to finish, shoving her aside as she ran in. "Well, then," Eirin said. "Now, who do we have here? You're… of course. Utsuho and Cirno, correct?"

Utsuho nodded. "I see Remilia mentioned us."

"She did."

"How are Flandre and Sakuya doing?"

"Flandre's fine. Sakuya's a bit more questionable-that was a heavy blow for a human to take-but I think she'll be all right."

"I meant mentally."

"I think I managed to do it," Reisen said, "but I'm not sure. What happened to their minds is… well, I'm not really sure how to explain it."

"It doesn't matter. Just stick to the practical parts."

"All right. Normally, an insane person is still that person; even if you go crazy, you're still you. But this is… different. Sakuya and Flandre were not acting as themselves. Their minds were… well, there wasn't much left that was actually them. It happens when one attempts to influence the twisted directly with their true abilities; that contact is the cause. But the way it happens is… well, I'm not sure how to describe it. Minds are harmed by that contact, damaged and twisted in a way I've never seen before."

"Were you able to fix it?"

"I think so," Reisen said. "I know I managed to… well, let's say to fix the affected portions of their minds. But if enough damage was done to damage who they are, then that's something I can't fix. I guess a simple-although not exactly precisely accurate-way to put it is that ordinary insanity scrambles the mind, while this destroys it. That's in no way accurate, but for our purposes, I think it's at least a close enough metaphor."

"It'll do," Utsuho said. "So do you think they'll be all right?"

"Yes,"' Reisen said, "'I do think that. It's not certain, but I think I got to them in time. I don't think there was much time to spare, though; much longer and they would've definitely been too far gone. Utsuho, did you ever try to affect the 'twisted' directly?"

"Only once."

"That's about what I thought. I found a trace of the effect in your mind. A small enough trace to be harmless, though, so don't worry. And I removed it, anyways."

"If that's all you did," Utsuho said, "then it's all right this time, but if there's a next time, don't do anything to my mind without telling me first."

"If she did anything," Eirin said, "you'd know. You'd be aware that something was wrong. The mind knows when something has happened to it."

"If that's true, then it's good to know. If it's true, of course."

"A suspicious one, I see. Well, I suppose there's nothing inherently wrong with that. And I suppose we've taken a similar approach ourselves, what with having Udonge examine everyone. Anyways, what brings the two of you here? It wasn't just to check up on Remilia, was it?"

"That's correct," Utsuho said. "We're looking for information about the twisted-that's what we call the things."

"And I was your first thought?"

"No. We looked for Reimu first. I thought that she was probably the one who took care of them last time, and although whatever was done obviously didn't work, we thought she'd be likely to know at least something about them. But she wasn't at the shrine, and with no idea where else to find her, we decided to move on."

"So you came here."

"Actually, the reason we came here specifically is because of an encounter we had with one Sanae Kotiya. She mentioned that Kanako was heading here."

'"Ah, yes," Eirin said, "the god from the mountain. Yes, she came, and not alone. She had enlisted the aid of others on the mountain and come against us. She thought we might have something to do with the twisted, and she came looking for a fight. She was… less than compliant when instructed to submit to Udonge's inspection, and instead attempted to force her way in."

"I assume you drove them off," Utsuho said.

"Not really, actually. We fought them to a draw. But then we got some assistance Kanako wasn't expecting. They hadn't been here when the fight started-they don't live here, although," she laughed, "that may be changing."

"Who was it?"

"Mokou."

"Hold on," Utsuho said. "Mokou? Why would she help Kaguya?"

The door to the mansion swung open, and another woman stepped through. "The situation has recently changed," she said.

"Keine," Utsuho said. "What are you doing here, Keine?"

"Cooperating," Keine said. "We're working together on this one. We've never been on bad terms with Eirin and the others. Well, except for Mokou and Kaguya killing each other. Though that part's likely to change, I think."

"What do you mean?"

At that point, the door swung open again, and yet another woman came through. "Reisen, Remilia would like you to do a check on Flandre."

"Sure thing," Reisen said.

"You must be Cirno," the woman said as Reisen went inside. "Allow me to introduce myself, then. I am Fujiwara no Mokou. I do believe I met you at the power plant, Utsuho."

"We were actually just talking about you," Cirno said. "Eirin was just saying you helped out against Kanako."

"I see. Eirin, I cannot find Kaguya. You know the mansion-and her-better than I do; could you give me a hand?"

"Sure," Eirin said, and the two of them reentered the mansion, leaving Cirno and Utsuho alone with Keine.

"Um, is that normal?" Cirno asked. "Because I thought Mokou and Kaguya always killed each other, and doesn't Eirin serve Kaguya? Even if you're not on bad terms, I wouldn't expect Eirin to help Mokou."

"Well," Kiene replied, "as I said, the situation has recently changed. Although I can't say I was surprised by it. Neither was Eirin, I think. We've seen it for some time now."

"Explain, please," Utsuho said.

Kiene nodded. "Certainly. Okay, so Kaguya and Mokou have been fighting for… well, a long time. Thirteen hundred years, or something like that. Do you know why?"

"Kaguya rejected Mokou's father, right?"

"Right. And it's understandable that Mokou would resent Kaguya for that. But she's been after Kaguya for well over a thousand years. Do you really think that would sustain hatred for so long?"

"It did seem a bit excessive," Utsuho said.

"Indeed. In fact, the anger and hatred has been gone from their feud for a long time now."

"Then why do they keep killing each other?" Cirno asked.

"I think it's because of their immortality," Keine said. "The only thing they know will remain throughout eternity is each other. Their feud, I think, was the one constant in their lives, the one thing they knew would always be there. So they kept it up, not realizing how their feelings had changed. Until now, that is."

"What happened?"

"The… things."

"We call them twisted," Utsuho said.

"Well, it started with them," Keine explained. "We barely even heard of them the first time they showed up; they were gone quickly. But this time, that's not the case. They've been present for a couple weeks now, and three days ago, they attacked the village. It wasn't a huge force, and Mokou and I were able to take care of them. We were fortunate that they came on that night, as it was the night of the full moon, and my power was at its height. We might have been in trouble if not for that.

"Anyways, when the twisted came, there were already people fleeing from them, mostly fairies living in the forest. And there were deaths before we could destroy the twisted, fairies among them. I tried using my power over history to alter this, but, well, it didn't work. I didn't try any more than a couple times, though, so I didn't go crazy or anything. Although Reisen said there was a minor effect, which she fixed.

"The deaths of the fairies had an effect on Mokou. We'd heard the rumors from the first twisted appearance, but until that night, it didn't really seem real to us. But at that point, we were faced with proof that these things can kill immortals."

"It's the first time since becoming immortal that I've been afraid."

Keine turned to face the new woman, who had just emerged from the mansion. "Kaguya."

"Where's Eirin?" Kaguya asked.

"Inside, helping Mokou look for you."

"I see," Kaguya said.

Keine turned back to Cirno and Utsuho as Kaguya went back inside. "Right. Anyways, it was like Kaguya said for Mokou, too. But you can imagine my surprise when the first thing she did upon having that realization was come straight here. I followed her, and we arrived to find the twisted attacking this place as well. We aided in driving them off, and then Mokou went straight for Kaguya. But not to kill her.

"Mokou and Kaguya have been killing each other for hundreds of years. Their feelings for each other changed greatly in that time, but it took the threat of actual death to get them to realize it. That's what happened; Mokou realized that she didn't want them to kill Kaguya. And Kaguya had the same realization in regards to Mokou. It took the threat of death to get them to realize they'd actually come to love each other."

At that point, the door opened again. "That takes care of that," Eirin said as she exited the mansion, followed by Kaguya and Mokou. "Now, where were we?"

"I finished that explanation," Keine said.

"Right. In that case, let's move on. The two of you are here for information on the 'twisted', are you not?"

"We are," Utsuho said.

"Well," Eirin said, "I doubt we know any more than you do. Most of them look like featureless… human-ish things, with others being the same with fairies, and some actually resemble specific dead people. Attempting to affect them directly has a maddening effect, and they also have some sort of disruptive effect on other powers, which is likely the reason they can kill immortals. We don't know just what they are, but whatever they are, their existence should, quite simply, be impossible."

"Yeah, we already know that much," Cirno said.

"Do you have any other information?" Utsuho asked.

"No," Eirin said, "but we hope to remedy that. We will shortly be leaving for the world of the dead. We may be able to learn something there."

"What makes you say that?"

"These things can look like dead people," Keine said. "And we've yet to see one that looks like someone who's still alive. This would seem to imply some sort of connection to the dead. If we go to the land of the dead, we may be able to learn more."

"The only problem is that Mokou and Kaguya cannot enter the land of the dead," Eirin said. "Being there is equivalent to being dead, which cannot happen to immortals, the result being that immortals are incapable of entering. We've been debating what to do about this, and yes, we've reached a decision.

"Our problem is that we don't have enough combat power to split into two groups with sufficient capability. The team that goes to the land of the dead can only have enough combat power to handle anything it's likely to encounter if we strip everything away from Mokou and Kaguya and leave them pretty much on their own. And although they of course don't have anything to worry about from other people, the twisted can kill them, and just the two of them wouldn't be enough to handle a significant twisted force."

"We don't need all the details," Cirno said. "Just tell us the plan."

"We're all going," Kaguya said. "Mokou and I will simply wait at the border while the others head in."

"It's the best we can do," Eirin said. "Or it was, at least. Now, though, there may be another option."

"You're going to say one of two things," Utsuho said. "You either want us to go to the land of the dead, or you want us to stay here with Kaguya and Mokou. Which one is it?"

"The latter."

"We have some things to take care of," Utsuho said, "but after that, maybe. I don't like the idea of just sitting around, but I suppose we'd be willing to do it."

"What do you need to do?"

"It's Byakuren, isn't it?" Cirno said.

"It is," Utsuho replied. "We ran into Nazrin back at the Hakurei Shrine," she explained to Eirin. "She's the mouse who works with Shou, the tiger youkai who serves Byakuren. It's likely that they'll be coming after us at some point. And yes, they can find us; Nazrin has the ability to locate things."

"You plan to go to them first, then," Eirin said.

Utsuho nodded. "That's correct."

"And if they're not at the temple?"

"Then we'll have to give up on that for the time being, since we don't have any way to find them."

"Her temple's the one close to the village," Cirno said, "right?"

"That's right," Utsuho said. "It's not too far from here."

"Indeed, it is not," Eirin said. "That shouldn't occupy you for too long. I suppose we can wait until you're done with that before we head out. Although I'd prefer to get this done sooner rather than later."

"Then go," Mokou said. "It won't be long before the two of them are back. Kaguya and I can handle ourselves alone for that long. Hell, it'll probably be less time than we'd have spent alone under the original plan."

Eirin thought for a moment. "I suppose that's probably true. And Remilia will probably be here for a while longer, too. All right, then. We'll go ahead and depart. We'll have to leave Udonge here to make sure Flandre and Sakuya are all right, but most of the rest will be coming with us. I'll go find Tewi and get the rest of the rabbits moving, and then we'll go."

"I guess our group is the more likely to see combat," Keine said as Eirin reentered the mansion, "but I don't like the idea of stripping this place bare and then just leaving Mokou here."

"I'll be fine," Mokou said. "Besides, it's not like I'll be alone, now, is it?"

"I suppose that's true. I guess I'm just not used to being able to leave you and Kaguya together and not have you kill each other."

Mokou laughed. "_You_'re not used to it? You were just a bystander. I'm the one who was actually fighting her. You're not the one who's making such a major change after hundreds of years. I mean, hell, I just lost the only constant in my life. That's not easy to handle, you know."

"Good point," Keine said as she, Mokou, and Kaguya reentered the mansion.

* * *

_Even the brief time we saw them for was enough for me to see how Kaguya and Mokou felt about each other. Mokou might complain, but she and Kaguya truly did love each other. It was easy to see. And Mokou may complain about losing her life's one constant, but it's been replaced by another one, hasn't it? She and Kaguya may not be trying to kill each other anymore, but they still had each other, just in a different way. And excepting any interference from the twisted, they would always have each other._

_I found myself contrasting their situation with my own. Like them, the one I love is immortal. But I am not. Excepting the twisted again, I didn't have to worry about losing Cirno. But she could lose me._

_I was envious of Mokou and Kaguya. Their love truly could last forever, but mine and Cirno's… I will die eventually, but as long as I'm, I won't let anything happen to her. No being sealed, nothing. People could try, but I would not let anyone succeed._

* * *

Eirin came back outside briefly. "We're heading out," she said.

"We're about to get moving ourselves," Utsuho replied. "Um, Eirin."

"Yes?"

"Be careful. Cirno and I ran into someone who thinks there's somebody responsible for the twisted, even if just accidentally. But on the off-chance that it was deliberate, whoever's behind it isn't likely to be pleased with your actions. So be careful."

"You ran into Rumia, then?"

Utsuho nodded. "We did."

"Well, I think she's right. I think there is someone responsible for this. I think it was unintentional, but I do believe someone's responsible. Rumia's right about one thing: the twisted cannot have come into existence naturally. Anyways, yes, we'll be careful. You be careful, too. And watch out for Rumia. I may think she's right about the twisted, but I don't trust her, and I don't like having her around. She's too powerful. We may need to… deal with her once the twisted are taken care of.

"Well, anyways, thank you for agreeing to look after Kaguya and Mokou. We'll be back as soon as we can."

"Got it," Cirno said. "Good luck."

"Good luck to you as well," Eirin said as she flew off, joining the others as they departed for the land of the dead.

* * *

"Any tips for Byakuren?" Cirno asked once she and Utsuho were alone.

"First of all," Utsuho said, "if there's anyone we'll be able to talk out of a fight, it's her, but we should still assume that we'll have to fight. If we end up in a real fight, we should have an easy time; there aren't too many of them, and none of them have any particularly nasty abilities to worry about. However, I don't think we're likely to have that sort of fight. No, any fight we get into with them will be a danmaku battle, and that'll make things more difficult."

"How so?"

"The tiger Shou is extremely skilled when it comes to danmaku," Utsuho explained. "I've actually battled her before, although it was just a friendly contest. Apparently, she wanted to test herself against the toughest opponents she could find. Something about ensuring her ability to protect Byakuren.

"Anyways, Shou couldn't match my level of power even then. But she more than makes up for it in skill, and I got my ass handed to me. She's especially clever when it comes to her spellcard patterns; I've never seen patterns as tricky as hers anywhere else."

"Do you think we can win?"

"We have improved at danmaku," Utsuho said. "There is a reason I included it in our training, you know. We're still not at Shou's skill level, but I think we're far enough ahead in power to compensate. We'll just have to overwhelm her before she can take us out. But yes, I think we can win. I'm more worried about what'll come later."

"What do you mean?"

"You heard what Eirin said."

"Um… what she said about what?"

"About Rumia," Utsuho said. "She's already thinking that something will have to be done about Rumia. She said Rumia's 'too powerful', remember?"

"She didn't say anything like that about us," Cirno pointed out.

"She wouldn't have said it in front of us. But I think she simply doesn't realize how powerful you and I are now. It's like Rumia herself told us; people will be afraid of us because of our power. We'll have to be ready for that."

"All right," Cirno said, but she couldn't help but worry. Utsuho was acting a little strange, and that worried her. _Although it's probably just the Satori and Orin thing. I know that would've shaken me up. But still…_

"Okay, then," Utsuho said. "Let's go." _And don't worry, Cirno,_ she added to herself. _You'll be okay. I'll make sure of it._


	8. Chapter 8: Possible Threats

**Chapter 8  
**_Possible Threats_

The pair landed in front of the temple. "Odd-looking place," Cirno remarked.

"There's a reason for that," Utsuho said. "You remember that flying ship thing?"

"I saw it," Cirno said. "I'm surprised you know about it, though. I didn't think you'd started coming above ground much yet."

"The ship was sealed away underground. Apparently, the geysers that erupted when I first gained power freed it. It wasn't intentional on my part, but Murasa, the ship's captain, thanked me for it anyways."

"Okay. How's this relate to the temple looking like this?"

"Once Byakuren was freed, they decided they didn't need a ship any longer, so they brought it down and converted it into this temple. In less than a day, in fact."

"Hold on," Cirno said. "They turned a ship into something that looks like this that quickly?"

"We had assistance."

The speaker emerged from the temple, trailed by another. "Hello, Byakuren," Utsuho said. "Shou."

Byakuren came to a halt a few feet away from the pair, and Shou took position behind her. "I must say, this is certainly a surprise. We all thought you were dead."

"We've been getting that a lot," Utsuho remarked.

"I can imagine. But even after hearing of your survival from Nazrin, I didn't expect to see you here. And after what she told us, too. Hmm…"

"'She' doesn't refer to Nazrin, does it?" Utsuho said. "Who is 'she'?"

"An acquaintance of yours," Byakuren said. "The shrine maiden Sanae Kotiya. I understand she had something of a run-in with you."

Utsuho nodded. "She did. We encountered her at the Hakurei shrine. Apparently, Nazrin ran into Kanako's group on her way back here."

"Yes, Nazrin did mention them. I wasn't expecting Sanae to come here, though."

"What did she say?"

"Actually," Byakuren said, "she came to warn us about you. She intends to, as she put it, spread the word about your return. She said that you, among other things, attacked her."

Cirno took a step forward. "Hey, that's not what happened!"

"Do not worry. I am not automatically accepting everything she said. It did sound like she was… exaggerating a few things. And Utsuho, I got the impression that she has something personal against you."

Utsuho nodded. "She does indeed."

"Well, I believe that this is…affecting her analysis of your intentions. On the other hand, she did think you'd come here, and, well, here you are. So allow me to ask you of your intentions."

"We're here because we knew that you'd know about us being alive." Utsuho explained. "We have enough problems to deal with as it is, and I didn't want to risk having another show up at the wrong time."

"So you decided to take a more proactive approach," Byakuren said. "I see. And what of your encounter with Sanae? May I please hear your side of the story?"

"I'll start," Cirno said. "Utsuho was… well, we'd just finished off a group of twisted-you probably know what I'm referring to."

"It is fairly obvious," Byakuren remarked.

"Well, one of them looked like Satori," Cirno continued. "You know, Utsuho's 'owner'? And earlier, we'd encountered one that looked like Orin. The Orin one upset her, but it was the Satori one that really got to her. She was still out of order when Sanae showed up, so I confronted Sanae myself. And it seems Sanae was't exactly inclined to play nice. She…"

* * *

"…and she mentioned Eientei as she left," Utsuho concluded. "We decided to head that way ourselves. At the moment, we're cooperating with Eirin and Kaguya, but I decided to take care of any potential problems with you while we were close. We'll be returning to Eientei once our business here is settled."

"I see," Byakuren replied. "Hmm… well, at the very least, I do now have what is probably a fairly accurate idea of what happened. The opinions and details are up for interpretation, of course, but the general picture is fairly clear. I still have the question of motives and intentions, though. Hmm… you say you want only to eliminate these 'twisted', correct?"

Utsuho nodded. "That's correct. If you leave us be, there won't be any problems. But if you get in our way, then we will take you out. Make no mistake about that."

"A self-defense approach, then, more or less. Hmm… the problem is that I have no confirmation of the truth of what you say. I would like to believe you, but then, I would like to believe Sanae, as well. Causing problems is not something I want to do, but it may be that my inaction would cause problems. It's a difficult situation. Hmm… well, actually, there is a solution, isn't there? We will have a danmaku battle. That's how disputes are settled these days, is it not? If you win, I will give you the benefit of the doubt. If I win, you will stand down until such time as I am able to confirm or deny the truth of what you have told me. Do you accept?"

"Very well," Utsuho said. "How do you want to do this?"

Byakuren glanced over her shoulder at Shou. "There are two of us and two of you," she said as she looked back towards Utsuho, "so how about a two-on-two battle? The two of you against Shou and myself."

"Accepted," Utsuho said. "What form?"

"I am the challenging party," Byakuren said. "I believe that gives you the right to propose the specifics."

Utsuho thought for a moment. Two-on-two battles could take on one of three different 'forms': separate, tag, and partner. In separate form, the two teammates each acted independently, as if they were fighting solo, and each went through the allotted number of spellcards separately from the other. Tag form had one person from each side fight at a time, with partners able to freely switch in an out, and as with separate form, each teammate had a separate spellcard count. Partner form had each team acting together, with a combined spellcard total. Spellcards in partner battles were combined affairs, utilizing fire from both teammates in a single, integrated pattern. Separate form was the least common; it tended to be chaotic and sloppy, with unrelated patterns going simultaneously, and it was almost never used anymore. Partner form was more common and much more accepted, but many chose to avoid it, as it required combination spellcards, so only teams who had such cards could perform effectively; combination spellcards could be made quickly, but these were almost universally ineffective. And, of course, most people didn't have combination spellcards with more than a couple others. As a result, it was tag form that was the most common.

Utsuho considered the options. She didn't like standard form any more than most; the outcome was just too much up to luck. Tag form would work, but it would be influenced more by Shou's greater level of skill; in partner form, they'd have Byakuren to hit at the same time. Partner form, she decided, was the best option, and she and Cirno did of course have combination spellcards. _Although I'd assume this pair has them, too. But it's still the best choice._ "Partner form, then," she said. "Five spellcards. Acceptable?"

"Acceptable," Byakuren said. "Let us begin."

* * *

"We're ready," Utsuho said.

"As are we," Byakuren said. "So… begin!"

-Devil's Recitation –Pagoda–-

A symbol somewhat reminiscent of flowers appeared around Byakuren. Four nodes on the 'danmaku aura', as it was called, began firing steady streams of bullets. The streams moved back and forth, effectively restricting movement. Being part of the aura, which moved with Byakuren, the nodes also moved as she did. But instead of the various tricks of Byakuren's solo version of Devil's Recitation, Shou provided the additional shots using the jeweled pagoda she had needed to release Byakuren. Using the pagoda, she fired beams out from around her that left streams of bullets as they vanished. The bullet streams twisted as the bullets moved in different directions, disappearing when they reached the edge of the battlefield as Shou fired more lasers.

"And here's our first!" Utsuho said.

-Ice & Fire Sign: Inferno Spear-

Cirno and Utsuho began forming large ice spears on their end of the battlefield and sending them flying towards their opponents. As they flew, the spears left dense trails of fireballs in their wake. These fireballs spread outward about a second after appearing. And new ice spears were continually being fired.

It was Byakuren who took the first hit of the battle. "Not bad. Now, give this one a try."

-Light Magic: Milky Way's Storm-

Lasers flew from the sides across the battlefield in curved patterns. Shou fired more lasers forward in a spread pattern. Many of them crossed Byakuren's aura, and those ones curved to a new direction and accelerated. And it was at that time that Shou fired the next spread.

The curving and acceleration took both Cirno and Utsuho by surprise and threw them off. Utsuho ended up moving right into the path of one of the side lasers. "Right, then. Looks like this one'll actually be interesting. Cirno! Let's do this!"

-Split Star: Star Strike-

Utsuho formed a star and tossed it at Cirno. Fireballs regularly shot out in a circle as the star moved. When the star hit Cirno, two things happened. First, it was at that time that Cirno formed a star and tossed it at Utsuho. And second, when the star hit Cirno, it burst into several smaller stars and a cloud of fireballs, both of which flew quickly outwards. And when Cirno's star hit Utsuho, the same thing happened as Utsuho formed another star.

Neither side took a hit for a while. Instead, the timer on Milky Way's Storm ran out. "Pretty good," Byakuren said. "Try this one next."

- Purple Mist –Vajra–-

Byakuren's aura separated from her and moved to the middle of the battlefield, allowing fire from a stationary position while Byakuren still moved around freely (although a node could have done the same thing). Circles of misty purple bullets shot out from the aura in four-circle groups. Shou, meanwhile, threw out two nodes. Green lasers shot out from each node. The nodes rotated as they moved around the battlefield, the lines formed by their lasers always remaining perpendicular.

Cirno took the next hit. "Damn! Okay, then. Take this!"

-Heat Sign: Expanding Heat, Contracting Cold-

Utsuho threw a node into the center of the battlefield. The node began spewing out fireballs in all directions. At the same time, large numbers of ice shards formed around the sides of the battlefield and began moving towards the middle, disappearing upon making contact with Utsuho's node.

Byakuren was the next to be hit. "You're doing well," she said as her aura returned to her. "Right, then. Let's see how you do against this."

-Magic: Bursting Rays of Light-

The nodes on Byakuren'a aura began firing a basic spread pattern. Shou fired a large number of lasers in all directions, those hitting the left or right of the battlefield bouncing off. As with Milky Way's Storm, many of the lasers passed through Byakuren's aura. Those that did burst into a spray of bullets upon exiting the aura.

This time, it was Shou who took a hit. "Damn. Messed up."

"Don't worry about it," Byakuren said. "Now come on, let's end on a good one."

-Flare Sign: Storm of Light-

The upper two nodes of Byakuren's aura began firing lasers in a rotating pattern, one clockwise and the other counterclockwise. Any lasers that hit the sides of the battlefield bounced off. The lower two nodes each fired a spray of bullets in all directions. Those fired backwards at any angle arced around and proceeded forward towards Cirno and Utsuho's side of the battlefield. Any lasers and bullets that passed close enough to Shou were drawn towards her. At regular intervals, Shou released the gathered energy in a dense storm of shots, adding shots of her own to it as well. The storm was more intense the more shots Shou had drawn in, but it wasn't a one-to-one correlation; more than one shot was added to her storm for each single shot drawn in.

Utsuho took a hit from Shou's third storm. "Okay, then. Cirno, let's take them down!"

-Galaxy: Orbiting Stars Around the Center-

Utsuho threw a node into the center of the battlefield. She and Cirno formed several stars and sent them orbiting around the node, each one orbiting at a different distance. At the same time, fireballs and ice shards formed around the edge of the battlefield and were drawn towards the center, vanishing upon making contact with Utsuho's node. Byakuren and Shou found that they, too, were being pulled into the center.

The bullet density was higher than that of their previous spellcard, but dodging was simplified by the fact that this time, all of the bullets were moving towards the center. Or it would have been, if not for two factors. First, the stars made things trickier. And second, there was the pull towards the center, which served to throw off Byakuren and Shou's movement. The two of them did their best, but eventually, Byakuren took a hit.

* * *

_What Rumia had said seemed to have Utsuho disturbed. I wondered if she thought Rumia was right, that people would turn against us. She certainly seemed to, given what she'd said about Eirin. But on the other hand, Eirin is only one person, and Utsuho became worried about her reaction only upon hearing her concerns about Rumia, which would indicate that she may very well develop the same concerns in regard to us. And yes, some individuals would certainly react as Rumia expected. But would the general reaction be the fear she predicted?_

_Seeing Rumia as she is now was… unsettling. I knew her, once. But now… even after just one brief encounter, I could tell that she's not the same person I knew. There were a few similarities between… well, I'll call the one I knew Rumia, and since the current one is no longer her, she'll be 'Ex-Rumia'. I can't actually identify any specific similarities, but I know they're there. But… well, I knew Rumia, but Ex-Rumia, despite any similarities, is a much different person._

_Ex-Rumia claimed that she wasn't 'up to' anything, and she also said that she was against the twisted. And that, at least, is probably true; we know for a fact that she destroyed at least one group. And she claimed that she was no worse than other youkai, but is that true? I just… well, I guess suspicion is natural, and I was suspicious. Part of me wondered if she did have some connection with the twisted. But…_

_I tried to shake those thoughts from my mind. She didn't matter right now, right? Unless we crossed paths with her again, we did not need to concern ourselves with her, right? She wasn't our problem. She had nothing to do with the twisted._

_Right?_

* * *

"Well done," Byakuren said once the four of them were back on the ground. "All right, then. I will honor our agreement. Assuming that you have spoken truthfully, I will not interfere with you. If, however, your words turn out to have been false, then you can expect to see me again, and not on friendly terms. This is as we agreed, correct?"

Utsuho nodded. "Correct. In that case, I believe our business here is done."

"Be careful of Sanae," Byakuren said. "I may not be interfering with you, but she may find others who… don't give the matter as much thought as I did. So remember to be careful."

"We will," Utsuho said. "Thanks."

* * *

"That went well," Utsuho said once Byakuren and Shou had reentered the temple.

"Yeah," Cirno said. "Back to Eientei, right?"

"Right," Utsuho said. "Let's go."


	9. Chapter 9: Confrontation

**Chapter 9  
**_Confrontation_

As Cirno and Utsuho approached Eientei, they found that they were not the only ones doing so. "Someone else is approaching Eientei," Utsuho said.

"I know," Cirno said. "I sense it, too. Just one person, though. Who do you think- wait, now there's a second person. Following the first one?"

"It certainly appears that way," Utsuho said. "No, hold on. The first reversed course. And... more people?"

"The first one's alone," Cirno noted, "but the others seem to be in a group."

As soon as the first person reached the group, the group scattered. "They're running from whoever it is," Utsuho said.

"Then why was the person moving away from them at first? And the person's not following any of them," Cirno noted. "Why not?"

"Whoever it is was probably just playing around."

"Should we check it out?"

"I don't think it's any of our business," Utsuho said. "We can't involve ourselves in everything."

"I want to check it out," Cirno said.

"Why? Wait, do you think it's-"

"I do."

"I see. All right, then. Let's go."

* * *

The two of them landed in front of the person, and saw that Cirno had been correct.

Rumia faced the pair as they landed. "Ah, you're still alive. Good."

"Why do you care?" Cirno asked.

"So hostile. Shouldn't we be allies? After all, our situations are similar. If the three of us team up, then I don't care how many come against us. We could take any number of them."

"Or we could avoid hostility in the first place."

"That won't happen," Rumia said. "It doesn't matter what we do. They will fear us, and that fear will drive them into action against us."

"It's your fault they came for you," Cirno said. "You were killing people, weren't you?"

"Of course. That's normal for youkai."

"Something tells me you were doing it a bit more that most. And you told us you enjoyed making a scene, enjoyed having them fear you."

"I did say that, yes, and it is true."

"Maybe that's why they turned against you," Cirno said. "Did you ever think of that?"

"That was a factor, sure, but not a deciding one. It may have moved up their decision, but they would have come for me eventually anyways. It doesn't matter what we do, Cirno. They will come for us eventually. We can perhaps delay this, but eventually, it will happen. Not because of anything we do, but because of what we are."

"And you don't think you did anything to deserve it? Like, say, what were you doing with that group of people?"

"Oh, you saw that?"

"More or less," Cirno said.

"Well, yes, I was having some fun with them. I do enjoy making a scene, remember. But that's all it was. Hell, I only killed one of them."

"You did kill someone?"

"Yes. He was good, too. I hadn't had human in ages. So what? Are you trying to tell me you haven't killed anyone?"

"I didn't kill them," Cirno said. "I had my fun with humans, sure, but I didn't kill them. You should know that."

"_She_ would know that," Rumia said. "That's what this is about, isn't it? Not what I do, but how my actions compare to hers. How I compare to her. You see me, and you can't help but see her. But I do not act like her. That's it, isn't it? That's what's bothering you. Well, guess what? I'm not her."

"No, you're not," Cirno said. "She would never say or do things like that. What has happened to her?"

"She no longer exists. Even if I am sealed again, she will not resurface. Rather, a new personality would develop in the same way she did. And this personality would remember nothing from my life or hers. Its memory would begin anew."

"She's dead, then."

"Well… I don't know if that's really the right word, but the way you mean it, yes, she is dead."

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Utsuho asked.

"Oh, that's easy. You can see it, can't you? Cirno here is just about ready to kill me. If I told her that yes, the Rumia she knew could return, then she would be… less willing to do so. No matter what happened next, that would be to my benefit."

"Then why not say it?"

"Because lies are boring. The truth is always far more interesting, don't you think? I find no enjoyment in deceit. Sure, I'd love to give Cirno an emotional problem, but if I know it's something I made up, well, that's no fun."

"Is that all that matters to you?" Cirno exclaimed. "Just what's the most 'fun'?"

"Why shouldn't it be? What's the point of living your life if you don't enjoy it?"

"And you can't do that without killing people? Without making yourself into a villain?"

Rumia laughed. "Oh, but it's so much fun playing the villain. You should try it sometime. And youkai kill people anyways. Why not have some fun with it? But you're not going to agree with me, are you?"

"You've got that right."

Rumia responded not with words, but with a blast of darkness directed at Cirno. But Cirno wasn't hit. Utsuho pushed Cirno out of the way and took the hit herself. She charged right through the blast, collided with Rumia, and slammed her up against a tree. "You leave her the hell alone."

"So that is how it is," Rumia said. "I thought as much. Well, then, let's have some fun with it."

Suddenly, Rumia was gone, Utsuho spun around, sensing her by Cirno. And indeed she was. She hit Cirno with a dark blast. Utsuho fired a blast of her own, but Rumia suddenly wasn't there. And then she was right in front of Utsuho, holding a sword to Utsuho's throat.

"When I said you two could probably take me even at night," Rumia said, "I may have been… understating my abilities. Oh, you've got a chance, don't get me wrong. However, I think you'll probably find yourselves on the losing end. Especially since I've already seen you fight. I've seen your abilities, whereas you have no knowledge of mine."

"I think there's something you don't realize," Utsuho said.

"Oh? And what would that be?"

Utsuho stepped forward and punched Rumia in the gut, using her power to add extra force to the hit, which sent Rumia flying. She hit the ground and skidded to a halt. "What the hell?" she said as she got to her feet. Darkness gathered around her hand, forming into her sword. "Huh. Well, let's try this again." She vanished and appeared in front of Utsuho again, her sword once more at Utsuho's throat. Except that she had no sword.

Rumia took a step back. "How the hell are you doing that?"

"I don't know what that sword of yours is actually made of," Utsuho said, "but I don't need to know that in order to take it apart."

"Take it apart?"

"At a molecular level, if you know what that means. You could say I'm destroying it, although that's not quite accurate. Close enough, though."

"Basically," Cirno said, "we can do a lot of things you haven't seen."

"I see. Perhaps I've underestimated you. Still, you do have your limits, do you not? You can't do it to me, obviously, or else you probably would have. Which means that all you've done is prevent me from using my sword. Which I don't actually need, really. So let's get back to business, shall we?"

Rumia vanished again, once more appearing next to Cirno. But this time, Cirno was ready, and she hit Rumia with a block of ice, sending the being of darkness flying. But then Rumia was back, right in front of Cirno. Cirno sent another block of ice at her, but she vanished, reappearing behind Cirno and hitting the fairy with a strong dark blast.

Utsuho fired a blast, but Rumia vanished once again. She reappeared and launched a blast at Utsuho. Utsuho evaded the blast and moved over to Cirno, taking aim at Rumia and firing as she did so. But as usual, Rumia vanished, appearing to the side and launching another attack. Utsuho pushed Cirno away and took the hit herself, returning fire.

Rumia appeared again and fired. Except that her aim was thrown off when the ground heaved beneath her. Cirno took advantage of her confusion and froze her. This proved ineffective, however, as Rumia simply vanished again, appearing outside of the ice that had contained her. "Sorry, but that's not going to work. Nice trick with the ground, though. Not that your tricks will be-"

Rumia didn't notice the falling tree until it landed on her. Utsuho immediately followed up with a blast, as did Cirno. Rumia took the hits and went flying back a ways. She vanished, appearing closer to them. "Nice one. Now try this."

Dark energy began swirling around Cirno. Utsuho reacted immediately, charging through the gathering energy and shoving Cirno out just before the energy concentrated, enclosing Utsuho within. The energy contracted towards Utsuho, but she countered, pushing back against it with her own power to hold it off.

Cirno tried to get to Utsuho but she was thrown back upon making contact with the concentration of dark energy. "Utsuho!"

"Predictable," Rumia said. "Stupid, too, really."

"You bitch!" Cirno attacked with a storm of ice, but Rumia dodged as usual. She kept blasting, but Rumia would always vanish and reappear elsewhere. And then she noticed something.

_She's not attacking,_ Cirno thought, continuing to fire ice blasts at Rumia. _Why isn't she- wait, divided focus. Her attack on Utsuho is strong enough that she doesn't have enough power left over to actually attack me. She's just wasting time until Utsuho wears out. And she can outdo one of us, so Utsuho will wear out before she does. Damn it, I have to do something! But what? I can't get through to Utsuho, so I have to hit her. But she keeps teleporting. How does she- wait, she's moving through the-_

Cirno fired another ice blast at Rumia, who easily avoided it. "Damn it, stay in one place!"

Rumia laughed. "Aw, what's the matter? Can't hit me? Come on, give it another-" she broke off as she vanished again, avoiding another blast from Cirno. "Sorry, but no."

Cirno fired more blasts, and Rumia avoided them all. "You're boring me, here," Rumia said. "You should really try something else, you know? You can't hit me."

"Only because it's night," Cirno said. "You're moving through the darkness. You can't do that in the light."

"That's correct," Rumia said, "but what do you plan to do about it?"

"I can stall for time, too."

Rumia laughed. "Stupid of you. You won't see the sun for a couple hours yet."

"Oh? Well, then, maybe you should've looked up."

Another laugh. "How dumb do you- what the-?"

Rumia cut off as a star blazed into existence above them, illuminating the area. "It's not the actual sun," Cirno said, "but it can light a small area just fine. If you'd looked up, you might have noticed something; it took some work to make this one. Too bad I kept you busy dodging. Speaking of which, dodge this!"

Even though she couldn't vanish, Rumia still managed to avoid Cirno's attack. And then she took a nuclear blast at point-blank range. "Too bad you're weaker in the light," Utsuho said. "In the light, you can't keep your little field strong enough to hold me, can you?"

"Damn," Rumia said. "I definitely underestimated you. Looks like this may be interesting after all. I think it's goodbye for now, though. See you," she added as she flew away.

* * *

_Seeing Rumia like that couldn't be easy for Cirno, I knew. She knew Rumia, but now, that Rumia is gone. I don't know how she thinks of the current Rumia. Does she still think of her as Rumia? I don't know, but I don't think so. I think she sees the current Rumia as having killed the Rumia she knew._

_I didn't know just what was going through Cirno's mind, but I knew this was important to her. That's why I was willing to divert and go after Rumia. But I have to wonder what her emotions are where Rumia was concerned. Rumia had been a friend of Cirno's before Cirno and I hid underground. The loss of Daiyousei was devastating to her; even if Rumia hadn't been quite as close a friend, I still would have expected something. So why didn't she seem similarly affected by the loss of the Rumia she knew?_

_Perhaps it has something to do with the time between the two losses. For several years, Cirno and I were alone. We hid ourselves away together; we interacted with nobody else. Perhaps Cirno has already felt like she lost her old friends. Or perhaps I ended up replacing them in her mind._

_I had only just realized what my feelings for Cirno really were, but that doesn't mean I didn't have those feelings earlier; I simply didn't realize what they truly were. I found myself wondering if Cirno was the same way. Were her feelings for me the same as mine were for her? And had she been aware of this for a while, or had she, like, only recently realized it? I loved Cirno, but…_

_Did she love me?_

* * *

"Well," Utsuho said as Cirno eliminated her star, "that takes care of that."

"Yes," Cirno said. "Um, I just have one question."

"Yes?"

Cirno rose to look Utsuho in the eye. "What the _hell_ were you thinking?" she exclaimed. "Are you stupid? You could've gotten yourself killed! Why did you do that?"

"If I hadn't," Utsuho replied, "then you've have been in there instead of me."

"But that just put you in there! It didn't help anything! And you could've died!"

"Was I just supposed to let you end up in that situation?"

"I'd come back! As long as it's not the twisted, I'll come back! You won't!"

"I don't care. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

"And what if you die? Damn it, Utsuho, I don't want you to die! I don't want to lose you! What about that? What if you get yourself killed? What if I lose you? What if that's what happens to me? What then?"

Utsuho was silent for a moment. "I… I didn't… I never thought of it that way. I… I don't know. I don't know, Cirno. But what am I supposed to do?"

"Stay alive!"

"I can't do that forever. I'm not like you. I'll die eventually."

"So stay alive as long as you can! Don't… I love you, Utsuho. Don't make me lose you."

Another silence. "You do, then."

"Love you? Yes. Yes, I do."

"Then I didn't need to worry. Good."

"Huh?"

Utsuho embraced Cirno. "I love you, too."

* * *

**You thought I'd forgotten about Cirno and Utsuho's newer abilities, didn't you?**


	10. Chapter 10: Objectives

**Chapter 10  
**_Objectives_

Not many remained at Eientei. In addition to Kaguya and Mokou, Reisen had remained, as she was necessary to see to Sakuya and Flandre. The nursing staff had remained, of course, and saw to their physical needs, but only Reisen could examine their minds. A few other rabbits had also remained, mostly those less capable in combat, basic servants and the like. But everyone else had gone.

Reisen met Cirno and Utsuho by the main entrance. "How did it go?" she asked after checking their minds.

"Just fine," Utsuho said. "Byakuren has agreed to refrain from impeding us. Anything noteworthy happen here?"

"Well, Sakuya woke up. Both she and Flandre seem just fine, although they'll be remaining here today. Remilia wanted to leave right away, but the nurses want them to stay a little longer, especially Sakuya. Remilia didn't want to remain, but when I pointed out that the sun would be up shortly, she gave in and agreed to remain until sunset. So your business is concluded, then?"

"Our business with Byakuren, at least," Utsuho said. "We learned of another problem from her, though. Apparently, Sanae's going around 'warning' people about me and Cirno. We may need to deal with her."

"You're not planning on doing that now, are you?"

"Only if she shows up here. I'd like to go after her now, but we did agree to remain here until Eirin and the others returned."

"Good," Reisen said.

"There is one more thing."

"Oh?"

"We ran into Rumia on the way back. I don't know if she's even planning on coming here, but I thought you should know. And, well, Cirno and I ended up fighting her."

"We drove her off," Cirno said, "but she's got some nasty tricks."

"Like what?"

"Let's just say that try to avoid fighting her when it's dark. Actually, the way we drove her off was by lighting up the area."

"So that _was_ you."

"You saw it?"

Reisen nodded. "I did. I didn't know what it was, but when an area gets bright like that all of a sudden, well, if you look that way, you're going to notice. I wondered if it might be you."

"That was indeed us," Utsuho said. "That was the end of our battle with Rumia."

"She kept teleporting," Cirno said. "I realized she was moving through the darkness, so, well, I lit things up."

"Hold on, that was you? Not Utsuho?"

"Our powers are more similar than you might think," Utsuho said. "We realized that early in our training, and we learned each other's abilities."

"Well, that's… unexpected. How can-"

Cirno cut her off. "Incoming. Just one person."

"Wait, how can you tell?"

"We haven't just learned each other's abilities. We can do a lot of new stuff now, too."

"And that includes... sensing people, or whatever?"

"It does," Utsuho said. "And Cirno's right. Someone is approaching. I sense it, too."

"Can you tell who it is?"

"No. We can't identify people that way-except for each other, that is. But someone's coming. The only question is who."

"Utsuho," Cirno said, "do you think it's Rumia?"

Utsuho thought for a moment. "It's possible, but I'd say it's unlikely. She wouldn't have any reason to come here, right? And she wouldn't be looking for a fight right after we beat her, I don't think."

"Then who is it?"

"It's probably our 'scout'," Reisen said.

"Scout?"

Reisen nodded. "She agreed to aid us after we rescued her from the twisted-and yes, I think we've all started using that name. Anyways, we've been using her for reconnaissance; she has a useful ability for that sort of work."

"And you aren't worried that she'll be attacked again?"

"Eirin decided that such a risk was necessary. And it's a minor risk, too; an encounter she can't run from is unlikely. Eirin's worrying earlier was more out of her concern for the princess; she has no such feelings here."

"I see," Utsuho said.

"Anyways, um, why don't you two head inside? If she's back, I should talk to her before she sees you two."

"In case Sanae got to her? A good idea. We'll go fill Mokou and Kaguya in, then. Come on, Cirno."

* * *

Eientei was a large place, but the pair didn't find it difficult to locate Kaguya and Mokou. There were two people alone somewhere in the mansion, clearly the two they were looking for. And even in a place with an unfamiliar layout, finding their way to someone was easy when they could sense that someone's exact location.

Cirno and Utsuho heard the two talking as they approached the room. "…but they are an unknown," Mokou was saying.

"I thought you said you'd met Utsuho," Kaguya said.

"Only briefly. Keine and I visited the power plant once. Hardly enough to get to know her."

"I suppose. And Eirin seems a bit worried about them. Utsuho in particular, I think."

Cirno rolled her eyes. _Talking about us without knowing we can hear them. How clichéd can you get?_ She opened the door, stepping into the room with Utsuho.

"Eirin told me Utsuho wanted to incinerate Gensokyo," Kaguya, whose back was to the door, continued. "Apparently it was temporary insanity, and is over now. But we don't know her or Cirno. What we do know is that they're both powerful, and we know Utsuho was ready to do something like that, and we can't be sure it won't happen again, and they just entered the room, didn't they?"

"Yep," Mokou said

"I apologize," Kaguya said as she got out of her chair and turned to face them. "I didn't realize you were there."

"It's not a problem," Utsuho said. "After all, you're right about what I was ready to do. I'm not going to repeat that, but that's something you'll have to convince yourselves of."

Mokou got to her feet as well. "Anyways, you had some business of your own you were taking care of, I believe. How did that go?"

"Just fine," Utsuho said. "Byakuren has agreed to let us be, so we returned here as planned. Although we had an encounter with Rumia first. You may have seen part of it."

"The light? Yes, we noticed. I take it you won."

Utsuho nodded. "We did."

"Do you think Rumia's responsible for her disappearance?" Kaguya asked.

"It's a possibility," Mokou said. "We have someone we have been using for reconnaissance," she explained to Cirno and Utsuho, "but she's been gone for much longer than she should be. Eirin in particular is just about ready to give up on her."

"Actually," Utsuho said, "she's outside, speaking with Reisen. Cirno and I sensed her approach-yes, we can do that-and Reisen concluded that it was indeed your scout."

"And you didn't stay outside to meet her?"

"Reisen thought we should let her talk to the scout in private first."

"That may have been a very good idea," Kaguya said. "There's no telling how she'll react to the news of your survival."

"As I thought," Utsuho said.

"Pardon?"

"When Reisen said that, I remarked that it was a good idea, but we haven't yet told you the reason I stated. Which means that the real reason is different. And based on what you just said, I'm thinking that the reason is related to just who your scout is."

"Well… yes."

"Then just- hold on, I think someone's come looking for us."

"You can 'sense' this, then," Mokou said.

"Yes. Cirno and I can sense people's locations. We can't identify people very easily that way-although we can pick out each other-but we can sense them. And right now, someone's heading this way. I guess they know where to find you."

Kaguya indicated the wine glasses sitting on the small table between the chairs. "Of course they know where we are. Who do you think served the drinks?"

"You don't even go and get your own drinks?" Cirno said. "Really?"

"We do if we're right there, but why bother running off to do something like that when you can have a servant do it for you?"

"I had forgotten how easily this lifestyle can spoil you," Mokou remarked. "I may be just as noble as Kaguya, but it has been some time since I last had an opportunity to live this way."

The approaching person, one of the servant rabbits, entered the room. "Ah, you are all here. Good. Our scout has returned. She and Reisen will meet you in the main hall."

"Well, then," Utsuho said, "let's go meet this scout of yours."

Reisen had wanted to talk to the scout before the scout saw Cirno and Utsuho, and as soon as Cirno saw her, s

* * *

he understood why.

"Cirno," the scout said as she approached the fairy. "It's true, then."

"I'm still alive," Cirno said. "We were hiding out in the underground."

"So Reisen told me. And you must be Utsuho."

"I am," Utsuho said. "And you are?"

"Wriggle Nightbug."

_Well, _Utsuho thought, _that explains a few things._ "Ah, yes. You were a friend of Cirno's, I believe. She's mentioned your name."

"That's right," Wriggle said, "although I can already tell she's changed just as much as I have."

"Daiyousei is dead," Cirno said. "Utsuho and I are alive, but as far as I know, the others who died really did die. I do know for sure that Daiyousei's dead. And yeah, that's the kind of thing that changes a person."

"Sounds like you had it at least as bad as I did. Although it looks like you found someone else even underground."

"Utsuho's the one who took me underground, actually. What about you?"

"I had Mystia to help," Wriggle said. "Rumia, too, but she didn't really get it. Mystia, though… I got the feeling that she has more in her past then she lets on. She was a lot more mature about the whole thing than I'd ever seen her before. And now we… well, we're… um…"

"You and Mystia?"

"Um… yes."

"It's funny how many people these things have brought together," Utsuho remarked. "Kaguya and Mokou, me and Cirno, you and Mystia... I guess good things can come even from something like this."

"Wait," Wriggle said, "you two are-"

Cirno nodded. "We are."

"Um. Well, um, actually, now that I think about it, I really shouldn't be surprised. I mean, you two have been living together for several years now, right? Given that, this really shouldn't be as surprising as I'm finding it."

"Yours surprised me," Cirno said. "I didn't think Mystia even knew what an emotional relationship was."

"As I said, it quickly became apparent that there's more to her than we thought. I think… I think there's something in her past. Something nasty. Something that made her decide to hide herself behind the veneer of a child."

"And you don't know what?"

"I'm not going to push her. She'll tell me when she's ready to. Anyways," she said, turning to Kaguya and Mokou, "as I told Reisen, that's why it took me so long to get back; I went to go check on Mystia."

"Where is she?" Kaguya asked.

"She's at the human village right now. A lot of us have gathered there over the past couple of days," she explained to Cirno and Utsuho. "And the humans have been quite welcoming, I understand; it's amazing how much a common threat can do to overcome differences."

"Keine has been organizing a defensive plan in case of another attack," Mokou said. "She and I have been going back and forth between there and here. There aren't a lot of very powerful people there, but we do have good numbers. And there are at least a couple more powerful individuals there; in particular, it seems that Reimu Hakurei has decided to move in for the time being."

"Hold on," Utsuho said. "Reimu's in the village?"

"Yes," Wriggle said. "I saw her myself. Why?"

"We've been looking for her," Cirno explained. "We thought she might know something about the twisted. You know, since she probably took care of them the first time, just like she takes care of any other incident."

"We've asked her about that, actually. And apparently, it was in fact not her who handled things the first time. We've been trying to find out who did take care of them the first time, but so far we haven't made any progress. That's been one of my jobs, but I haven't had any success."

"Unfortunate," Kaguya remarked. "Anyways, why don't you give me the report?"

"There's nothing that's really all that noteworthy," Wriggle said, "but sure. And then I think Cirno and I have some catching up to do. And there aren't any pressing concerns at the moment, I don't think."

"Yeah, we should take it easy today," Utsuho said. "You know, get some rest and all that. Especially me and Cirno; we've done a lot of fighting over the past day and night, and we could probably use it."

"That," Cirno said, "sounds like a very good idea."

* * *

Remilia, Flandre, and Sakuya left as soon as the sun went down. Utsuho and Reisen met them outside. "Thank you, both of you," Remilia said. "And thank Cirno for me, too."

"I'll do that," Utsuho said. "Where will you go? Back to the Scarlet Devil Mansion?"

"I'm not sure," Remilia said. "Yes, we repelled the first twisted attack, but if there's a stronger attack, we may not be able to. Especially not without Patchouli. And we need to go get China, anyways. We may stay underground for now."

"That may be a good idea," Utsuho said. "Well, when you're underground, find an oni named Yuugi. I told Hong to look for her, too. And if you do decide to stay, then just tell her I sent you."

"All right," Remilia said. "And again, thanks."

"Any time," Reisen said.

* * *

"It seems they've left," Cirno remarked.

"Huh?"

"Remilia. Three people just left; I'd assume it's Remilia's group."

"Wait," Wriggle said, "how can you tell?"

"I did mention the training Utsuho and I did. Sensing people is one of the many new abilities we developed."

"Um… okay, then. And you can tell it's Remilia?"

"No," Cirno said. "We can't identify people that way, with the exception of each other. But Remilia intended to leave at sundown. Now it's sundown, and wouldn't you know it, three people just left. It's not hard to figure out who they are."

"I see. You've changed in more ways than I thought, then. You-"

"What the hell?"

"Cirno?"

"We have incoming," Cirno said. "A lot of them."

"Is it-"

"It's not the twisted. They feel… different. No, these are people. But who… it's not Eirin already, is it?"

"Yes, you said you expected her group to be gone for a while."

"Come on," Cirno said. "There's still two people outside. We'll tell them first. Let's go."

* * *

Utsuho and Reisen turned to head inside, but then Utsuho stopped. "Um, Reisen? We've got incoming."

"Incoming?"

"Yes. A large group."

"Not good," Reisen said. "Okay, um, we need to see after Kaguya. And Mokou. Um, okay, I'll go get them. You find Cirno and-"

"It's not the twisted."

"Wait," Reisen said, "you can tell? I thought you said you couldn't identify people."

"I can't identify individuals-except Cirno-but the twisted feel different from anything else. It's how Cirno and I know they're not alive. They don't feel the same as people do. And speaking of Cirno, she would seem to be on her way out here."

"Alone?"

"No. She's with one other-Wriggle, probably. They'll be coming out right… about... now."

Right on cue, Cirno and Wriggle exited the mansion. "Utsuho," Cirno said. "Reisen. I guess you're aware, then."

"I feel them," Utsuho said. "There's enough of them to be Eirin's group, but I wouldn't have expected them back so soon."

"Yeah," Reisen said, "they'll probably by gone for a while. There hasn't been enough time yet. If it is them, they'd have had to find what they were looking for pretty much at the moment they reached the netherworld, which would take far too much luck even for Tewi. Unless they had some natural luck, I suppose. Anyways, um, Wriggle, go find Kaguya and Mokou."

"Got it," Wriggle said. She didn't head inside immediately, however. She held the door open for several seconds, then entered.

"You know," Cirno said, "we could find them a lot more easily."

"I know," Reisen said, "but I want both of you out here in case there's a fight. And to keep track of just what our incoming group is doing. It won't take Wriggle very long, though; she took enough insects inside with her to sweep the place pretty quickly."

"I see," Utsuho said. "Okay, most of the group has come to a halt. Only one person is continuing to approach."

"Not immediately going to attack, then, at least," Reisen said. "All right, let's just wait and see who we've got here."

* * *

It was, in fact, Eirin. "Ah, a welcoming party," she said as she landed.

"Cirno and I sensed your approach," Utsuho said. "Although we weren't expecting you back so soon."

"We weren't expecting to be back so soon. We're not done, though. We're just here to pick up Kaguya and Mokou. We have another destination."

"Remilia just left," Reisen said, "so I can come, too. And Kaguya and Mokou should be out soon; Wriggle's getting them as we speak."

"Wriggle? She returned?"

Reisen nodded. "Apparently, she stopped in to, um, 'check up' on Mystia."

"She did, did she? Well, that's fine, then. We'll just have to make sure she lets us know next time."

"Anyways," Utsuho said, "what happened? You are back sooner than expected."

"We ran into Yuyuko Saigyouji. She and Yomou were exiting the netherworld as we arrived. We were lucky to run into them. They think they know what's going on, but Yuyuko wasn't willing to take time telling us. Apparently, she wants to reach their destination as quickly as possible. I didn't want to leave Kaguya and Mokou here any longer than necessary, but Yuyuko didn't want to make the detour here, either. I did manage to talk her into remaining at her destination until we get there, though."

"And where is that?"

"They're heading," Eirin said, "for Yukari's."

"What this about Yukari?" Mokou asked as she, Kaguya, and Wriggle emerged from the mansion.

"We're going to her place," Eirin said. "We stopped by to pick you up first. I'll explain on the way. What about you?" she asked, turning to Cirno and Utsuho. "Will you be accompanying us?"

"We do want to know what's going on," Utsuho said, "but…"

"Problems?"

"Yes. Byakuren won't be giving us any trouble, but it seems that Sanae is determined to… make things difficult for us. So I want to come with you, but I'm thinking Cirno and I should deal with her before she becomes any more of a problem. We'll just check the mountain, I think; I don't want to go searching all over Gensokyo for her. We'll just check the mountain, then come back."

"I see," Eirin said. "All right, then. If you want to take care of that, then go. We'll meet back here."

"That works," Utsuho said. "Oh, and, um, try not to mention that we're cooperating. We don't know who Sanae's gotten to."

"Understood," Eirin said. "All right, then. Kaguya, Mokou, Reisen, Wriggle. Let's go."


	11. Chapter 11: A Continuing Conflict

**Chapter 11  
**_A Continuing Conflict_

Utsuho and Cirno landed at the base of the Youkai Mountain. "Okay," Utsuho said, "our destination is at the top of the mountain. We'll need to be careful; the kappa and tengu live here, and some of them aren't too fond of 'visitors'. We may have some fighting to do on the way up, and someone's about to stumble upon us."

Cirno sensed it, too. "Hopefully nobody unfriendly. I'd prefer to try to avoid-okay, that's just not fair."

"I feel them," Utsuho said. "Twisted. Coming this way."

"We need to warn the person."

"Well, that person's about to see us, so… there." Utsuho pointed. "That must be it."

The person saw the pair of them and descended. "Well, well," she said as she landed. "I didn't think you'd actually come."

"Tenshi," Utsuho said. "I should've known she'd go to you. You're always looking for something to do, aren't you?"

"Hey, it's not my fault life in heaven's so boring."

"Um, who is this?" Cirno asked.

"Tenshi Hinanai," Utsuho said. "She's a celestial. And she's gotten bored of life in heaven. I've had encounters with her before. She's always looking to pick a fight."

"Tenshi. I've heard that name. You were the one behind all that strange weather, weren't you?"

"Ah, yes," Tenshi said, "that was fun."

"And now you're going to fight us."

"This is not a good time for us to fight," Utsuho said. "There are twisted headed this way."

"'Twisted', huh?" Tenshi said. "Not a name I've heard, but it's easy to figure out what you're referring to. And the name does fit. So, you say some of them are on the way here."

"Fight them," Cirno said. "If you're bored, fight them."

"Oh, but they're not that fun to fight. They're just mindless… things. They're not even alive. It's just not as much fun. I mean, sure, it's a hell of a lot better than nothing, but given the choice between fighting them and fighting a person, well, I'm going with the person."

"Fine, then," Utsuho said. "I'll take you on. Cirno, you handle the twisted. I'll handle the danmaku battle."

"A danmaku battle?" Tenshi said. "Oh, no, that's not what I meant at all. Those just aren't any fun. Too many rules and restrictions, you know? No, I'm looking for something a bit more interesting. Less danmaku, more actual fighting."

Cirno stepped forward, a sword of ice forming in her hand. "How about we just do this?"

Tenshi giggled excitedly. "Ooh, a swordfight! Even better!"

Utsuho put her hand on Cirno's shoulder. "Are you sure?"

Cirno looked up at her. "I'm sure. You deal with the twisted; I'll handle Tenshi."

"This'll be fun!" Tenshi said, drawing her own sword. "One thing first, though." She focused for a moment, then assumed a ready posture. "There."

"What did you do?" Cirno asked.

"Oh, nothing that'll affect our battle. Just a quick little rain up at Kanako's shrine. Sanae said she wanted me to give a little signal, you know? Let them know you're here and all that."

"She's coming, then," Utsuho said.

"Probably. Unless Kanako's got her running another errand, that is."

"Watch for her, Utsuho," Cirno said. "Keep anyone else-or anything else-away, all right? I'll deal with Tenshi."

"All right," Utsuho said after a pause. "Just be careful."

"Oh, don't worry about her," Tenshi said. "She's a fairy. Even if I do kill her, she'll pop right back up. Which is good. Don't have to worry about holding back, and all that. Makes it more fun."

"They're here," Utsuho said. "Time for me to get to work. Be careful, Cirno." She flew off towards the approaching twisted.

"Man," Tenshi said, "does she just not get the fact that you're a-" she cut off as she acted quickly to block a surprise attack from Cirno. "Feisty little thing, aren't you? Well, all right, then. Let's get this on!"

* * *

As usual, the small group of twisted hardly put up a fight, and Utsuho had them taken care of quickly. But she wasn't done; another group had entered her sensing range and was headed for the battle, and they'd be arriving... _There they are. Okay, then, you things. Your turn._

* * *

Cirno blocked a strike from Tenshi, then leapt to the side and attacked. "You're pretty good," Tenshi said, parrying the blow. "This is even more fun than I thought."

Tenshi struck again. Cirno ducked underneath and launched an attack of her own. Tenshi twisted herself around in an impossible-looking manner, evading the attack.

Neither of the combatants were human. Both Cirno and Tenshi moved faster than humans could, and in ways no human could. A swordfight between humans looked much different from this battle. Both combatants had speed and strength beyond that of humans. They reacted faster, and their arms could withstand the force of blocking blows instead of parrying them. And neither combatant's sword was natural. Cirno was keeping her ice sword intact and whole, and Tenshi's magic weapon couldn't be damaged in the first place.

As the battle continued, the two of them holding even, Cirno decided to change the game. She made an attack, which Tenshi blocked. But Cirno had formed another ice sword in her other hand, and she made a second swing. Tenshi evaded the strike and leapt back. "Ah, dual swords. I like your style." Tenshi's sword glowed again, then started to shimmer. A similar shimmering effect began around her left hand. The shimmering effects vanished as a copy of her sword formed in her hand, and the original's glow ceased. "There we go."

That was not what Cirno had expected. "How did you do that?"

Tenshi laughed. "I wield the Sword of Scarlet Perception. It takes whatever form I require of it. Including becoming a pair of swords. Sorry, but you won't be getting an advantage that way. Now, shall we continue?"

* * *

The second group didn't put up any better of a fight than the first group. But Utsuho still wasn't done; more twisted were approaching. _Scattered individuals this time, though. I've never seen any by themselves before. But why are so many coming here?_

She knew, of course, that the twisted weren't coming to her location, nor to Cirno and Tenshi's. There were others that passed safely distant from the battle, others that began ascending the mountain. _What's going on up there?_

* * *

The pace of the fight had picked up considerably. The two of them were attacking, blocking, parrying, and evading at a rate no human could hope to match. Tenshi's greater size gave her an advantage, but as had been the case throughout the battle, Cirno wasn't giving her a chance to make use of it. The fairy continually pressed the attack, keeping Tenshi close enough that the Celestial's greater reach didn't really matter.

The two of them were again holding even, and it was once again Cirno who decided to change the game. She moved in to strike, but instead of the attack Tenshi expected, Cirno leapt into the air and struck from above Tenshi. Tenshi went airborne herself, twisting herself around Cirno's strikes. "Hey, another good idea. You really know how to do a fight."

Cirno responded by pressing the attack. She and Tenshi rose higher into the air, now moving and spinning around each other in three dimensions instead of two. Blocks and parries became less common, both combatants preferring to evade and leave both swords free for the counterattack. Neither combatant backed off at any time, neither one gave the other any breathing room.

* * *

Utsuho didn't sense any more twisted. She hadn't gone for every one she'd sensed, only those that would get too close to Cirno and Tenshi. So some had made it to the mountain. But they hadn't gone far; they'd been met and destroyed by living people, presumably the kappa. But that left the question of why so many had been coming to the mountain in the first place. And, of course, there had likely been ones that approached the mountain from other directions and never came within her range. _A bit many for coincidence. But why would they come to the mountain?_

But that question could wait. _I need to get back to Cirno. Someone's coming._

* * *

Cirno weaved through Tenshi's strikes, using her small size to her advantage. She flipped underneath Tenshi and struck from below. Tenshi blocked, but Cirno didn't slow down. She kept moving, striking next from the sides, and then from above. And then Cirno once again changed the game.

When Tenshi blocked Cirno's attacks from above, Cirno released her swords and dove, slamming into Tenshi and carrying her downwards. And as the two of them weren't really all that high up, Tenshi didn't have time to break away before Cirno slammed her into the ground.

Cirno took a couple steps back, letting Tenshi get to her feet. "I win."

"That hurt," Tenshi said. "Nice move, though." She held out her hand, and her weapon appeared in it.

"What," Cirno said, "you haven't had enough yet?"

"Oh, don't you worry about that," Tenshi said, her weapon seeming to vanish. "You won. I'm not upset about it. I didn't say I wanted to win, you know; I said I wanted to fight. And that? Was a hell of a fight. We've got to do that again sometime."

"Just leave," Utsuho said, landing beside Cirno. "You lost, right? Then leave."

"Fine, fine. But you can expect to see me-"

They all felt it. "Well, then," Tenshi said. "Unexpected." She turned around, looking up towards the top of the mountain.

Utsuho followed Tenshi's gaze. Someone could be seen approaching rapidly, and as the person drew closer, Utsuho was quick to recognize her. Although she'd already known who it would be; the presence was unmistakable. "Kanako."

_

* * *

_

I hadn't expected to run into Wriggle. And then it turns out that not only has Wriggle changed as much as I have, but Mystia is apparently not as childish as she acted. Rumia is gone, replaced by Ex-Rumia. And Daiyousei, of course, is dead.

_I found myself wondering what I would have done if I hadn't run into Utsuho. Eventually, I would've had to go somewhere; my heedless flight couldn't have continued indefinitely. I don't think I would have returned to the lake even once the twisted were gone, but I don't know where I would have gone. Probably to one of my old friends. What if I'd gone to Wriggle? Would I have developed a relationship with her? Or Mystia. If I'd gone to her, would she and I have developed a relationship?_

_I tried to push such thoughts aside. I suppose it's only natural to think about how things could have happened, but is there really any point to it? Besides, the way things had happened, I had run into Utsuho, and I think I'm just fine with that._

* * *

"Whoa, hold on," Cirno said. "Kanako? The god? The one who-"

"That's her," Utsuho said.

"Um, what do we do?"

"Confront her directly. If she wants to fight, then we'll oblige. Don't worry; we can take her."

Kanako landed between the pair and Tenshi, and spoke to the latter first. "Tenshi, there is more to do. Please return to my shrine and await my return. I will fill you in then."

"Got it," Tenshi said.

As Tenshi flew off, Kanako turned to face Cirno and Utsuho. "Now, then. What might it be that brings you two here?"

"I think you probably have a pretty good idea," Utsuho said.

"You're here in response to Sanae's actions, then."

"'Sanae's actions'? Are you trying to say you have nothing to do with it? And if so, do you really think I'll believe that?"

"Not at all," Kanako said. "The plan was hers, but I did give my approval. Although I suspect she's going a bit farther than I'd like. The idea was to inform people that you are alive and make sure they're aware of the potential for problems-you know, just in case-not to try and turn them against you."

"You've done nothing to stop her."

"Well, I find myself in an odd position. You see, despite going beyond what I had intended, Sanae's actions stem from her devotion to me, and I want to encourage such a thing. So I decided to say nothing. I figured that she was unlikely to cause much trouble, not when there are… other problems to worry about at the moment. Once that problem is dealt with, my intention was to become personally involved and determine your intentions for myself. I was not expecting you to take such an active stance against her."

"Where is she?"

"She is elsewhere at the moment," Kanako said. "I had a task for her. In fact, you can safely assume that her efforts against you will halt for a while. Other concerns take priority."

"Then let's talk about those," Utsuho said. "While Cirno was fighting Tenshi, a significant number of twisted-I assume you know what I'm referring to." Kanako nodded, and Utsuho continued. "A significant number of them approached the mountain. They seemed to be headed for your shrine, although none of them got very far; I would assume you had someone, probably the kappa, ready to take care of them. But that doesn't change the question, which is: what were you doing that drew the twisted to you?"

"So the effect did show itself here," Kanako said, clearly talking to herself. "But to what extent? Hmm… I'll have to get a report from the kappa. Although I doubt it was even close to the level-" She seemed to suddenly remember Cirno and Utsuho's presence. "Well, anyways, drawing the twisted was only a side effect. My objective at the moment is to eliminate the twisted. Which, Sanae tells me, you claim to be your objective as well."

"If you're suggesting that we work together," Utsuho said, "then you can go fuck yourself."

"My, such language! If I didn't know any better, I'd say you have something against me."

"Yeah, I wonder what that could be. Hmm… oh, wait, maybe it's because you just randomly took my entire life away from me."

"I had a purpose," Kanako said. "You acted otherwise."

"Yeah? And just what the hell did you expect? You didn't even tell me who you were! You just gave me power! I tried to ask you why! You changed everything I knew about myself with no explanation, and you're surprised at what I tried to do? If you'd been in my position, you'd have lost it, too!"

"Okay, Utsuho," Cirno said, "calm down. We don't need another fight."

Utsuho didn't seem to hear her. "And you dare to blame me for it? What I tried to do was wrong, but what _you_ did-!"

"You would claim my actions were worse than yours?"

"Utsuho, calm down," Cirno said. "Please."

And she seemed to. "I would," she told Kanako. "And I'm right, too, because my actions were the result of yours. I went crazy; I won't deny that. But it happened because of _you_. Because you decided to take my life away from me for your own purposes. And you know what? I did what you wanted. Even after all that, I did what you wanted. I didn't have anything else to do. You'd taken my life from me; I didn't have any other." She glanced briefly at Cirno. "Now I do." She turned back to Kanako. "So I'll say the same thing I told Sanae to tell you: you can take that 'duty' you had for me and shove it up your ass."

"What, then, do you plan to do?"

"Take care of the twisted," Utsuho said. "And then? Cirno and I are simply going to live our lives. So let me say this: if you leave us alone, we'll leave you alone. But if you try anything, you can expect another visit from us. And if that happens, you can assume it won't end well for you."

"You would challenge a god?"

"Do not try to intimidate me. Thanks to you, my power far surpasses yours. You know what the outcome of a battle between us would be. Leave me and Cirno be, and you will never have to experience it." She turned away. "Come on, Cirno. Let's get going."


	12. Chapter 12: Break

**Chapter 12  
**_Break_

It was late morning by the time the pair arrived at Eientei, and from the number of people there, it was easy to figure out that everyone had returned.

As before, Reisen met the two of them outside. Though she found nothing worng in their minds, the rabbit was clearly unsettled by something. "Clear," she said. "Okay, so, um, well, uh, how'd your thing go?"

"Interestingly," Utsuho replied. "Sanae wasn't there; she had the celestial Tenshi attack us instead. I don't know that we really accomplished anything, but… well, Kanako's up to something. She was doing something that drew the twisted to her shrine."

"Ah," Reisen said, "that. Well, actually, that's, um, uh, well-"

"Did something happen?"

"You might say that," Eirin said, exiting the mansion. "It was an… informative trip. We now know what is causing the twisted to appear, and we believe we have a way to stop them. But…"

"Just start from the beginning," Utsuho said. "We'll want to hear the whole thing, anyways."

"Right. Well, we thought that Youmu and Yuyuko would be waiting at Yukari's after taking care of their business there, but we found the pair waiting nearby. Apparently, they'd decided to wait for us before going in. Something had… well, they were shaken, and they hadn't even gone in."

"Was it the twisted?"

Eirin shook her head. "Worse. I'll explain in a moment, but you need to know about the source of the twisted first. Are you familiar with the so-called 'Perfect Cherry Blossom' incident?"

"She is," Cirno said. "I've told her about that."

"Good. In order to take Gensokyo's spring into the netherworld, the barrier between the two worlds had to be weakened. Yukari did this at Yuyuko's request. After confronting Yuyuko, Reimu want to see Yukari about fixing the border. Yukari, however, never actually bothered to do it. She is known for her laziness, after all."

"There's no way the twisted are just ghosts or anything like that," Utsuho said. "What happened?"

"The border… deteriorated," Eirin said. "For a long time, leaving it weakened didn't seem to have any effect, but in fact, the border was slowly deteriorating. And as the border of the netherworld, it is effectively a border between life and death, as it separates the world of the living from the world of the dead. The deterioration had no actual effect for some time, but eventually, an effect did show itself.

"The twisted are an unnatural existence. They are a, well, twisted mixture of living and dead, and they exist because of the deterioration of the netherworld's border."

"That's why?"

Eirin nodded. "When the twisted first appeared, Yukari immediately fixed the border, and the ones that remained were easy to eliminate. But it was too late. The border had become… corrupted, I guess. Yukari was only able to repair the actual damage; the deterioration remained, and continued to spread through the border. Now, the entire border is compromised, and the twisted have returned."

"That's what made them?"

"Um, Utsuho?" Cirno said. "Are you okay?"

"Yukari did this?"

"No," Eirin said. "She didn't know what would happen."

"And that's even worse!" Utsuho shouted. "There's not ever any purpose to this! Satori and Orin and everyone died! And they died just because Yukari was too fucking lazy to fix something she did in the first place? So she didn't know what would happen. That just means they were killed by sheer fucking laziness! They died because-"

Cirno hit her in the face. "Calm the hell down!"

There was silence for a moment. "Sorry," Utsuho said. "It's just…"

"I know. I lost people, too."

"And you can just let that go? You can just say 'oh, she didn't know'?"

"I… I don't know," Cirno admitted, "but… look, I'm not saying you should just forgive her-I can't do that, either. But if she truly didn't know, then…"

"Yukari has become a victim herself," Eirin said.

"What do you mean?" Utsuho asked.

"Something was wrong," Eirin explained. "We could all feel it. That's why Yuyuko and Yomou decided to wait for us. We all went in together, and… well, Yukari attacked us."

It was then that Tewi exited the mansion. "We were lucky," she said. "Yukari did her border-of-life-and-death thing and killed one of us, but it was Mokou."

"And that's lucky?" Cirno said.

"Even my luck is highly unpredictable. But yes, that was lucky, because Mokou is immortal."

"We left as quickly as we could," Eirin said, "but before we did-just before Yukari killed Mokou, actually-Udonge had a chance to lock eyes with Yukari."

"I don't know," Reisen said. "I don't know what it was. It was… it was… it was just… it… it was… wrong. Just… _wrong_. I… I don't… it… was it even a mind? I don't know. I've never felt anything like it, never thought something like it was even possible. It's completely different from what trying to directly affect the twisted does. It's… it's…"

"I doubt we could understand how this has affected her," Eirin said. "We can't look into minds, can't understand what she feels when she does. We can't understand what she felt in Yukari's mind. But we can know what it means."

"And there's more than that," Mokou said, exiting the mansion.

"Okay," Cirno said, "seriously, do you people rehearse that?"

"It's just lucky timing," Tewi said.

"Anyways," Mokou continued, "there is more to this, as I found out when Yukari killed me."

Cirno expected Utsuho to ask what happened, but the hell raven was silent, so Cirno asked. "What 'more'?"

"That death was different," Mokou explained. "First of all, it hurt more than any other death I have experienced. But the important part is that my resurrection was… unusual. It was like… well, I cannot say, really. But I felt like my resurrection was a near thing, like it almost didn't happen. Like I was lucky that it did. I have never felt anything like it, but we do think we know what it was."

"Yukari's becoming one of them," Eirin said. "She's being twisted into a, well, twisted."

Cirno staggered backwards. "They… become the twisted? They actually… but then…"

Utsuho finally spoke. "No. That is not what happens. People do not become those things. They don't… the twisted look similar to them. That's all it is."

"Then explain Yukari," Mokou said.

"I don't know how to explain-wait. Hold on. Maybe I do. Eirin, has Yukari tried to fix the border again this time?"

"According to Yuyuko, yes."

"Then that's what happened. The border is like the twisted now. It's in a state that should not be possible. When Yukari tried to control it, she was hit by the same effect as when someone tries to affect the twisted."

"Damn," Eirin said, "why didn't I think of that?"

"She's wrong," Reisen said. "It's not like what happened to Sakuya and Flandre, I told you that."

"But they touched the twisted. Yukari touched the source of the twisted. There would be differences."

"And there are," Utsuho said. "Sakuya and Flandre couldn't use their actual powers. But you said Yukari used her border powers."

"Correct," Eirin said. "She could still think clearly enough to focus in that manner. I think that instead of losing her capacity for rational thought, she's… well, her mind would be changing in a different way, I guess. Like maybe she's becoming similarly aggressive, but without the loss of thought."

"It's much different," Reisen said. "It's… I think… she… I don't know."

"We'll stick to the practicals, then," Utsuho said. "She still has full use of her powers, but she's becoming more aggressive. And based on what Mokou said, she seems to be exhibiting whatever disruptive effect the twisted have. She's being corrupted just like the border of the netherworld. But it is the border that we should pay attention to."

Eirin nodded. "Agreed. It has been determined that the border is beyond repair. It will have to be replaced."

"Okay, wait," Cirno said, "how are we supposed to do that? Maybe Yukari could have, but-"

"I think I know," Utsuho said. "Think about it. That border is not the only one Gensokyo has. There is also the border between Gensokyo and the outside world."

"The Hakurei Barrier. So we get Reimu to do it? Use the Hakurei Shrine?"

"The Hakurei Shrine already anchors one border," Eirin said. "It may not be a good idea to anchor a second to it. But there is another way. Kanako Yasaka has, through her maiden, apologized for her prior aggression against us and volunteered her assistance. We will be using the Moriya Shrine."

"Okay," Utsuho said, "bad idea. Kanako's up to something. She did something that drew the twisted to her shrine."

"She and Sanae were testing their plan. Sanae was at the border of the netherworld, providing the necessary relay. The border will be anchored at the Moriya Shrine, but this border has a set physical location. It can still be done-that's one of the things Kanako was testing. She simply requires her maiden to act as a relay for the energy of her and her shrine."

Utsuho was still suspicious. "And why would that draw the twisted?"

"Because they form from the old border. The energy of the new border's creation serves as a draw to them, much like the power plant seemed to the first time they appeared."

"We can handle that," Cirno said. "They can be fought off."

"Unfortunately," Eirin said, "it's not that simple. You see, we can't simply leave the old border in place. To make room for the new one, it must be removed. And even if that wasn't the case, the old border might very well still produce twisted even if it wasn't the only one any longer. So it must be removed and replaced. Fortunately, Kanako and Sanae have succeeded in doing that. The old border will be removed and replaced not all at once, but only as the new border is formed to replace it. The creation of the new border will follow behind the removal of the old."

"So what's the problem?"

"The twisted form as a result of the corrupted border. Kanako's test run established that the elimination of this border… stimulates whatever process results in their formation.

"As soon as Kanako and Sanae begin," Tewi said, "twisted are going to start popping up in huge numbers. Once the replacement is done, they'll stop forming entirely, but until then, this, combined with the drawing effect, means that both Kanako and Sanae are going to get swarmed until they're done. Which makes protecting them tough."

"And you want our help," Utsuho said. "But you shouldn't trust Kanako. Even if what she says is true, you know she's only doing it to get faith."

"I doubt that," Eirin replied, "but even if you're right, does it matter? If all she wants in return for her aid is faith, then I see nothing wrong with letting her have it."

It was a few seconds before Utsuho spoke. "Um… well, um, I… I guess you have a point. I still don't want to cooperate with her, though."

"Then cooperate with us."

"I can do that," Utsuho said, "but remember, Sanae will be at one location and Kanako at the other. I can't see that ending well, especially not with Sanae."

"And apparently, it's Sanae's part that draws the twisted more strongly. We may just have to deal with it. Although…"

"You're planning something," Tewi said.

"I am," Eirin replied. "You know I'm not happy with just guarding Sanae and Kanako; there's too much that could happen. Stray blasts, some of them getting past us before we can destroy them, et cetera. There's too much risk. I realize that we're not going to be able to avoid having to protect Sanae and Kanako, but now, I think we may be able to reduce the numbers they'll face."

"A diversion. Draw them somewhere else."

"It'll have to be a strong effect, too; if it's not stronger than the effect Sanae and Kanako will be generating, it won't be very effective. But we can do that, I think."

"The power plant," Utsuho said.

"Exactly," Eirin said. "It drew them in before."

"Two problems. First, the equipment there can't be in good shape; even if left off, there's been no maintenance, and these things degrade even without use. And even if the equipment was in perfect shape, there are limits to what it can handle."

"So we max it out. I doubt it will be a weaker draw."

"I agree, actually. But here's the second problem: it's too dangerous. If anything goes wrong with any of that equipment, the result will be… well, bad. Satori and everyone sacrificed themselves just to give me time to prevent that. I'm not going to take that risk."

"I see. Hmm…"

"Don't worry," Utsuho said. "There's a solution. I need the equipment to generate electricity, but the nuclear reactions I can produce on my own. And contain them easily, too. That should work, right?"

"I don't know, Utsuho," Cirno said. "I don't think we've been drawing them to us."

"The reaction I'm talking about is vastly different from the nuclear energy we've been using in battle. You know that."

"Oh, yeah."

"We have a plan, then," Eirin said.

"Looks that way," Utsuho said, "although I'll need to pick an appropriate location. But first, I have a matter to discuss with you, Eirin. In private. Don't worry," she added, anticipating Cirno's protest. "I'll tell you about it. But I want the actual discussion to be just between me and her. I'll fill you in, I promise."

"All right," Eirin said. "Just one more thing first. The operation will begin tomorrow; we'll be leaving tomorrow morning and meeting Sanae on site-Kanako's got the kappa and tengu on the mountain, so she doesn't need our protection."

"Tomorrow. Got it."

"Good."

* * *

_It was during our first encounter with Rumia that I realized what my feelings for Cirno really are. That, however, does not mean that they weren't there. I know now that I've loved Cirno for quite some time; I just didn't realize it._

_When the earth rabbit Tewi said that they were lucky Yukari killed the immortal Mokou, I had a similar clarifying moment. The answer to a problem had been right in front of me, and I really should have thought of it sooner. And perhaps I did, but it was at that moment that the option truly hit me._

_I didn't know how Eirin would react to my request, but I resolved to make it anyways. If she agreed, that would be that, but if she declined… well, hopefully that wouldn't happen, because if she said no, it would not be me who was hurt._

* * *

The others had gone back inside. Utsuho and Eirin were walking through the forest near the mansion, and when Utsuho made her request, Eirin stopped dead in her tracks. "I- you- that- are you serious?"

"Dead serious, pun intended."

"Well. Um… well, you're asking for quite a lot. It's not easy to make, you know."

"I happen to know for a fact that you are capable of doing it. Although I don't think you'd need to. You still have some of it, don't you? Mokou couldn't have stolen any if you didn't. Or did she take it all?"

"Well… yes, I do still have some. I don't keep it all in one place, and keep only a small amount in each location; Mokou only found one, and thus was only able to steal enough for herself."

"And it's still good?"

"Of course. Funny thing about the elixir of immortality; it lasts forever."

"I thought as much. And you have kept it."

"Yes. I could just throw it out, yes, dump it in the ground or something, but that might have consequences. There's no telling what it might affect. It's much safer to just keep it."

"Well, you do have it, so there's no obstacle on your end."

"I'm not sure if I want to agree to this," Eirin said. "Immortality is not something that should just be given away to anyone who wants it. So tell me: out of all those who desire it, why should I give it to you? You want to become immortal, but why should I allow you to?"

"This isn't about me. I'm not doing it for me."

"Then… of course. Cirno. She's already immortal, but you are not."

"I will die eventually, and she will be left without me. I… I don't want to do that to her."

"And you wish to become immortal in order to prevent this. I see." She paused, thinking. "Hmm… well, if that is indeed true, then I do not object to your motive. Still… well, I'll be direct. You-"

"Already went crazy once and tried to incinerate Gensokyo?"

"Well, yes," Eirin said. "It's only natural to fear the possibility of such a thing happening again. You were stopped last time, but what if you had been immortal? Would Reimu and marisa have been able to stop you if that had been the case?"

"They didn't kill me, just beat some sense back into me."

"But what if you had been unable to die? Would that have changed the result? If you knew you couldn't die, would you have accepted your defeat, or would you have continued the battle?"

"I… I don't know," Utsuho admitted. "But let me ask you this: what power could I gain that would drive me mad now?"

"I think you're right about that; you're not likely to gain an overwhelming amount of power again. I suppose I'm probably worrying over nothing, but… well…"

"I understand. It did happen once. I can tell you that it will not happen again, but I suppose my word isn't enough. I will tell you this, then: if I do go crazy again, there is a way to stop me without killing me. Rumia was sealed away within herself; the same could be done to me. Yukari should know how to do it."

"Interesting," Eirin said. "Volunteering information that could be used against you. Very interesting."

"You already knew Rumia had been sealed, though, did you not?"

"That's true. Hmm… well, I'd like to think about it, but… well, I don't know if I will reach a decision before we depart tomorrow morning."

"Then give me your answer once the job is done. Immortality would make no difference against the twisted, anyways."

"So you do not intend to make your assistance dependant on my answer? You will assist regardless?"

"Of course," Utsuho said. "Fighting them is the reason Cirno and I came above ground in the first place. We will fight them regardless of what you say."

"I see. I had hoped as much. And I'm glad you're being open about it. I thought you might choose not to make this known; by telling me, you have cut into your potential bargaining power. It… tells me something. Hmm… well, I'm not ready to say yes, but I can promise you that I will give it serious consideration."

"I understand," Utsuho said. "Thank you."

* * *

"You're going too, then," Cirno said.

Wriggle nodded. "I may not have much to offer in battle, but I'll gather a swarm and spread them out to cover the area. I'll use them to monitor the area. A 'sensor net', Eirin calls it. I'll be able to see the area through them-and yes, I can do that. You and Utsuho aren't the only ones who've learned some new tricks over the past few years. I'll spread the swarm out, which will allow me to observe the whole area at once."

"Wait, so you'll be seeing, like, a… well, through a lot of eyes at the same time?"

"Yeah. And no, it's not easy to keep things straight. It took a lot of work to get that down. But I can handle it now. Anyways, that's my job. I understand you and Utsuho will are going to be a diversion, correct?"

"We are," Cirno said. "Well, we assume. Utsuho's outside with Eirin and Keine doing a test run, ensuring that we'll be able to draw the twisted."

Cirno paused, remembering what Utsuho had told her. Their arrival had been a couple hours ago. As soon as she had finished speaking with Eirin, Utsuho had, as promised, told Cirno what the conversation had been about. Cirno had been stunned by what Utsuho told her, and her surprise had yet to fade.

"Cirno?" Wiggle said.

"Oh, um, sorry. I was just… thinking, I guess."

"Is it about whatever Utsuho wanted to tell you?"

"Um, yes."

"What'd she say?"

"It… it's personal," Cirno said. "I don't want to talk about it."

Wriggle's concern for her old friend was easy to see. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Cirno replied, "not wrong. Just… unexpected. Although part of me keeps saying I should have seen it coming."

"Will the two of you be all right?"

"I told you it wasn't bad. It's just that… well, I've only recently realized that what I feel towards her is love, and I think she's had the same realization. What she told me… well, it… it really brought home just how she feels about me. It's a good thing, don't worry; it's just… surprising."

"I had a moment like that," Wriggle said.

Cirno laughed. "Not like this, you haven't."

"Something similar, then. A moment where I realized just how much Mystia loves me. And at the same time, when I realized how much I love her."

Wriggle spoke again after a prolonged silence. "Man, I didn't mean for this to get all emotionally heavy like that. Sorry."

"It's not a problem," Cirno said.

"Well, anyways, you were saying Utsuho's outside doing a test run."

"Yes," Cirno said.

"What's your plan?"

"Well, Eirin wants us to take as much of the pressure off your group as we can. Utsuho's old power plant seemed to draw the twisted the first time they appeared, so we should be able to…"

* * *

"Well," Keine said. "I'd say that worked."

"That it did," Eirin agreed. "It seems the plan's a go. Utsuho, any ideas for where you'll draw them?"

"Actually," Utsuho said, "I feel kind of stupid for not thinking of it immediately. Cirno and I did our training in the old Hell of Blazing Fires. It's a huge place, completely empty except for the fires below. It was an ideal location; we didn't have to worry about harming the surroundings or anything, since, well, there's nothing there to harm. And for that same reason, it is an ideal place for Cirno and I to draw the twisted to; there, we can safely go all-out, something we have so far been unable to do."

"I'm not so sure that's the best location," Eirin said.

"What do you mean?"

"From what you've told us, the twisted didn't arrive underground until several days after they appeared. And I'd assume they don't form underground, so-" She noticed Utsuho's confused look. "Oh, do you not know?"

"Know what? You told me they formed from the border of the netherworld."

"But not necessarily at it. They're more likely to form closer to the border, but they can form away from it. But the underground, I think, is too far away. In addition, although it doesn't have its own border, it is not quite a part of Gensokyo, although I'm not quite sure how to explain that relationship. Hmm… well, I suppose it doesn't matter. The point is that although the twisted clearly can enter the underground, they do not form down there, and there may be something about it that… well, that discourages their entrance."

"I don't think so," Utsuho said. "The force that hit the underground was substantial."

"Regardless, they don't form down there. And it's quite possible that the drawing effect may be lessened if done in the underground."

"Then where do we do it?"

"I," Eirin said, "would recommend the Expanse."

Utsuho thought for a moment. The Expanse was a flat, desolate region in the west of Gensokyo where almost nothing lived. There were, of course, numerous rumors about the place, and many storied of events some believed had happened there to make the area what it currently was. _But that doesn't matter, does it? Eirin's right; it's a good spot._ "That works."

"Good. You and Cirno can head there tomorrow while the rest of us meet up with Sanae. You'll probably arrive before we do. Although I have no doubt Sanae will beat us both."

"I don't think she's especially fast," Utsuho said.

"Not on her own," Eirin agreed, "but she's got help. Think about it. She was at the border while you were on the mountain; their test run was what drew the twisted. It took us day and night to get there and back, but she made it from there to here quickly enough to make our plan and be long gone by the time you returned. And the mountain's much closer to here then the netherworld. So how did she do it?"

"She had help, right?"

"Right. Specifically, the tengu Aya Shameimaru. She's more than fast enough to do that, as she's essentially been carrying Sanae."

"I see."

"Anyways," Keine said, "it sounds like we have a plan."

"Yes," Eirin said. "Yes, we do."

* * *

Reisen and Tewi had joined Cirno and Wriggle. "What I don't get," Tewi was saying, "is why the twisted are so aggressive. Most of the screwy stuff about them can be explained by their unnatural… -ness? –ity? Anyways, that doesn't tell us why they're so aggressive."

"It... may not be that they're aggressive," Reisen said. "I don't know if concepts like 'aggression' can even apply to these things. I mean, can they feel anything? Can they think?"

"There has to be some reason they attack on sight," Wriggle said.

"Do they, though? Do they 'attack' in the sense we mean it?"

"Um, yes," Cirno said. "They attack. You've fought them, haven't you?"

"That's not really what I meant," Reisen said. "The action appears to be attacking, yes, but what is the intent? Or is there even any intent?"

"Okay," Wriggle said, "you're starting to make my head hurt."

"I don't think they can think. I don't think they even have minds. They just move and attack. Or something like attacking, at least. It's just… what they do. If you drop an object and no action is taken, the object will naturally fall. Water will evaporate in the sunlight, gather into clouds, and return to the land as rain and snow and sleet. It's just the way things work."

"Okay, hold it," Tewi said. "Are you saying these things are some kind of force of nature?"

"No. They are not natural. But they, I believe, can no more think than can the wind. Can no more choose than can the rain. They have no thoughts, no feelings, no will. They are no more evil than an earthquake, no more malevolent than a hurricane. The difference is that those are natural, whereas the twisted are not."

Silence.

It was Cirno who first spoke. "Um. Well, uh… okay, whatever. Um…"

"It still bothers you, doesn't it?" Tewi said. "Yukari's mind."

Reisen nodded. "It does. And yes, I do think she's turning into one of the twisted. But I think she's unique in that," she said, preempting Cirno's objection. "The twisted kill the ones they attack. That much is certain. Yukari is changing because her mind and power touched the corrupted border. She is becoming one of them. The change hasn't finished yet, but when it does, she will be one of them."

* * *

The day was spent in preparation, and the night in rest. Come dawn, they were ready to depart.

Eirin handed a small orb to Utsuho. "Here, take this. I have one, too, and they're connected. When it's time for you to begin your diversion, I'll send a pulse through mine to yours. That will be your signal to begin."

"Got it," Utsuho said. "What about Kanako? Are she and Sanae in communication?"

"They are. Sanae is Kanako's maiden; her god can always communicate with her."

"I see. Anything else I should know?"

"No."

"Then we should get moving."

"Agreed," Eirin said. "Good luck."

"You, too," Utsuho replied.

* * *

**Yeah, I was probably a bit too heavy on the forshadowing with the whole Hourai Elixer thing. On the other hand, you probably didn't see the twisted's origin coming, did you?**


	13. Chapter 13: Threshold

**Chapter 13  
**_Threshold_

The Expanse stretched out around them in all directions. "Well, we're here," Utsuho said.

"Well," Cirno said, looking around, "if we can't use the old Hell of Blazing Fires, I don't think we'll do much better than this place."

"Agreed. Now we just wait until Eirin gives us the signal."

* * *

Sanae was indeed waiting for them when they arrived, and she had two others with her. Aya had been expected, but the other had not.

As the group landed, Reisen stepped forward. "Sanae. Aya. Tenshi. Please allow me to check your minds."

"Wait," Aya said, "seriously?"

"I warned you about this," Sanae said. She turned to Reisen. "I do not like the idea of exposing my mind to anyone, but Lady Kanako has instructed me to comply."

"Come on, Aya," Tenshi said. "You did know this was coming."

"Yeah, fine, whatever. Do your thing."

"Thank you," Reisen said. She examined each in turn, then stepped back. "Clear."

"Then let's get down to business," Sanae said. "Eirin, give me a rundown of your group's abilities."

"Myself, Kaguya, and Mokou are the most capable," Eirin replied. "I would assume we're on the same level as your Lady Kanako." She didn't add the fact that her own power was greater than Kaguya's, but out of respect for the princess, she limited herself to her level. "Reisen and Tewi are pretty capable in battle, too," she continued, "as is Keine. Wriggle here isn't much of a fighter, but she can monitor the area for us. As for all the other rabbits here, they're on the same average power level as most youkai, although they'll perform better; we've given them actual combat training. We shouldn't have too much trouble holding." She also didn't mention the fact that Cirno and Utsuho were going to act as a diversion.

"Lady Kanako doesn't want to take chances. Yuyuko Saigyouji has agreed to aid us as well; I actually spoke with her before proceeding to Eientei. She should be here-"

Suddenly, Yuyuko was right in front of her. "Boo."

"Gah!" Sanae leapt back in surprise, but she recovered quickly. "W-what was that for?"

"Nothing," Yuyuko said. "I just love doing that."

Youmu landed beside Yuyuko. Other ghosts took position behind the two of them. "We're here," Youmu said.

"Are these all you could get?" Sanae asked.

"They are," Youmu replied. "There aren't many ghosts strong enough to cross to the world of the living. We gathered as many as we could on such short notice."

"I see."

"I assume Kanako's ready," Eirin said, "correct?"

"Correct. She has the kappa and tengu ready. She will be safe."

"Then there's no reason to delay."

"Yes," Yuyuko said, "let's get started."

"Agreed," Sanae said. "Please allow me to ready myself."

Sanae approached the border. She stood silent and still. _Communicating with Kanako, I assume,_ Eirin thought. _Right. Time to give the signal._

_

* * *

_

The pulse was unmistakable. "It's time," Utsuho said. "You ready?"

Cirno nodded. "You know it."

"In that case, let's get this going."

Utsuho rose into the air. She formed a star in the sky above the Expanse, but this one wasn't like the ones she used in battle. With the star formed, she formed a barely-perceptible barrier around it. "There," she said, dropping back to the ground. "Reaction begun and contained. Self-sustaining, too; I won't have to worry about maintaining it while fighting."

"You'll have to maintain the containment barrier, though."

"Yeah, but you know how simple that is. It won't have a noticeable effect. Ah, and here they come."

* * *

"Be ready," Sanae said. "We are going to begin."

Sanae placed her hands on the border and closed her eyes. The snake ornament in her hair began to glow with a green light. All of a sudden, the usually-wavering border seemed to completely solidify, although this was just a visual change. A green light began to spread across the border from Sanae's hands. It looked like the existing border's pink tint was simply being replaced by a green tint, but what was actually happening was more than that. The old border was being destroyed, the new border forming in its place.

"They're coming," Wriggle said.

"All right," Tenshi said. "I'm not too fond of fighting these things, but this sounds like it'll be fun. Time for some action."

"We all know the plan," Eirin said. "We only have one chance at it, so let's do this right."

* * *

"I think," Utsuho said, "they've begun."

"Oh, really? What was your first clue?"

"The fact that twisted are appearing from nowhere all around us."

"Oh, shut up."

"This is it," Utsuho said. "You ready, Cirno?"

"Yes. Are you ready, Utsuho?"

"Of course."

* * *

Wriggle had taken position right next to Sanae. Yuyuko's ghosts encircled them. The rabbits were spread around those, as were Eirin and the others.

"They're here," Youmu said as the first of the enemy came into view. "It begins."

* * *

Their previous battles with the twisted had been against smaller groups. This one was different. Twisted were approaching in large numbers, and in addition, many were forming nearby in the first place. But Cirno and Utsuho had an advantage: in the desolate Expanse, they didn't need to worry about refraining from damaging the surrounding area. So this time, they didn't have to hold back.

At first, the pair simply blasted the twisted as they approached. But eventually, twisted would close in on them, either by managing to avoid destruction long enough to approach or by simply appearing close to them. It was the second that was more likely, so when it happened, they were ready.

* * *

Tenshi cut a pair of twisted in half, finishing them off. "Man, what is this? Aya, you made it sound like there'd be a lot more of them."

"I thought there would be," the tengu replied. "It's been easier than I expected, too."

_The diversion must be working,_ Eirin thought. "I'll take whatever help we can get."

"Maybe we were wrong," Aya said, "and it's Kanako's end that draws them more strongly."

"That would suck," Tenshi said.

"She's not in danger. Don't worry."

"I'm not worried. If they're drawn more to her, then I'm missing out on all the fun. Well," she added as she drove her sword through a twisted, "maybe not _all_ of it."

* * *

"Break!" Utsuho shouted.

Utsuho and Cirno leapt away in opposite directions. Ice shot out from around Cirno as she landed in the middle of a group of twisted, impaling them. She rose off the ground and formed a sphere of ice around herself. She surrounded the sphere with spinning blades of ice, then created a whirlwind of flame and ice around that. With everything in place, she charged straight at the enemy, spraying more ice in front of her as she moved.

As Utsuho landed, nuclear energy flared up around her. She sent shockwaves at the nearby twisted, blasting them back and clearing an area around herself. She formed a quartet of stars around herself, rotating counterclockwise around her. She formed two more 'layers' of stars, the outer one of eight and spinning counterclockwise, and the one in the middle of six and spinning clockwise. She charged right into the middle of the twisted, finishing off at point-blank range the few that managed to survive her stars.

* * *

"Wriggle," Eirin said, "report!"

"Numbers are still increasing," Wriggle said. "The rate seems to be holding to the pattern you described."

As the battle had waged, Wriggle had noticed a general rise in the number of twisted, an increase in the rate at which they appeared. Eirin had guessed that this was related to Sanae and Kanako's progress. They already knew that the replacement operation would stimulate the formation of the twisted, and now it seemed as though that stimulation increased as the replacement progressed.

"Then it seems I was right," Eirin said. "Although we won't know for sure on the pattern until-"

"One-quarter mark!" Sanae called out. She had to focus entirely on the border operation, and so was unaware of the situation with the twisted. But it had been agreed ahead of time that she would give progress reports.

"-fairly soon, then," Eirin finished. "Keep watching, Wriggle. If it deviates from the expected pattern, it'll probably happen imminently, so keep watch and let me know immediately if it does."

"Got it."

"Good." _I just hope Cirno and Utsuho can still handle their end._

* * *

Cirno dropped her ice long enough for Utsuho to fly in next to her, then reformed the entire thing around both of them, Utsuho doing the same with her stars. "Please tell me I'm imagining things," Cirno said.

Utsuho shook her head. "Unfortunately, I've noticed it, too. Their numbers are increasing. But don't worry; we can handle it."

"For now, but how long will this keep up for?"

"I don't know," Utsuho said, "but we'll be fine. We can handle numbers. They won't be any tougher individually; they won't take any more damage to destroy. We'll stick together; they won't get through our combined protection."

"I'm adding to mine anyways," Cirno said, and she did. Her whirlwind grew in strength, size, and intensity, and the ice blades increased in number.

"As am I," Utsuho said, adding a storm of smaller shots to her orbiting stars. "There we go. Of course, we won't be just letting them come."

"Of course," Cirno said, already spraying spears of ice in every direction. "Let's take them."

"Yeah," Utsuho said. She looked around. "Man, I can't see a thing through all this."

"We don't need to see them."

"True," Utsuho said. "Okay, than. Let's do this."

* * *

"Still no change, Wriggle?"

"No change," the firefly confirmed. "The rate still fits with your pattern. The twisted's numbers are still increasing, but the rate of increase is slowing."

Reisen blasted a pair of twisted out of existence. "Yeah? Well, the rest of us weren't really paying attention you what you were telling Wriggle, so mind filling us in? How much longer are their numbers going to rise?"

"Only briefly," Eirin said. "The rate of increase appears to be a parabolic curve. Their numbers should peak at the halfway point, then start dropping."

A blast from Tewi sent several twisted flying. "Yeah, great. Um, can we last that long?"

"Nothing's certain," Eirin said, sending an arrow right through a twisted's 'head', "but yes, I believe so. We might be able to do it even without Yuyuko's ghosts; with them, yes, we'll probably be fine."

"Yeah? Well, I'd prefer more than 'probably'."

"It's as good as we'll get," Youmu put in. "Now focus. The fight isn't over-"

"Incoming," Wriggle said. "A single. Not a twisted. Approaching our position fast. Coming from the south."

"We'll deal with this," Mokou said as she and Kaguya took positions. "Tell us when it'll come into-" She cut off as the person came into view.

"I told you she was moving fast," Wriggle said.

Kaguya recognized the newcomer. "What are you doing here?"

Rumia threw her sword with enough force to send it passing through several twisted. "You just had to do this during the day, didn't you?" she said, reforming her sword in her hand. "I really wish you'd waited until night. Would've made things much easier on me."

"We have no time for games," Eirin said. "What do you want?"

"Well, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that you're taking action against the twisted, so I thought I'd lend a hand. They're everyone's enemies, you know, and 'everyone' includes me."

"So it's true," Youmu said. "Eirin told us about you."

"She stays," Yuyuko said. "We'll take any help we can get. Stay with her, Youmu."

"Wh- yes, my lady. Rumia, stay with me."

"Fine," Rumia said. "Now come on, let's blow these things to pieces."

"Halfway there!" Sanae called out.

"Okay," Eirin said, "their numbers should start to drop, but don't get careless. We still have a while to go."

* * *

"Their numbers are definitely dropping," Utsuho said, "and at a good rate now, too."

"Yeah, great," Cirno replied. "Let me know when we don't have half a zillion of them heading for us."

"That'll be in about fifteen seconds. Let's drop the barriers and give them the spinner. That should thin them out. I think we're on the home stretch here."

"Whatever. Count of three?"

"Count of three. One… two… three!"

Cirno and Utsuho positioned themselves back-to-back and simultaneously dropped their protective storms. Each one channeled her power into a very powerful beam. The pair began spinning around rapidly, sweeping their beams repeatedly over a full 360 degrees.

"That worked," Utsuho said as they stopped firing and ceased spinning. "Okay, back to basic ass-kicking. Let's do-who the hell is that?"

Cirno, of course, also felt it. "Three of them," she said, the pair of them continuing to blast away at the coming twisted. "What the hell's up with that one?"

"I don't know," Utsuho said. "The other two are people, but that third…"

"It's not alive, but it's not a twisted, either."

"Oh, shit," Utsuho said, coming to a realization. "It's Yukari."

* * *

Kaguya and Mokou stood side-by-side, blasting oncoming twisted with everything they had. "Okay," Kaguya said," I am not used to this."

"Then get used to it," Mokou replied. "Unless you want a face full of fire."

"Focus, you two," Keine said. "Their numbers are continuing to drop, but let's not get overconfident. There's still time for a lot to happen."

"Seventy-five percent mark!" Sanae announced.

"Don't get careless," Keine continued. "I don't want this screwed up after we've come this far."

* * *

The one they'd identified as Yukari came to a halt, but the other two continued their approach. "Looks like she's sending in the shikigami," Utsuho said. "Good thing the twisted's numbers are still dropping. You can handle them on your own, right, Cirno?"

Cirno nodded. "I can."

"Good. You deal with them; I'll take Yukari's servants."

"Got it. I don't think I can keep them all away from you, though."

"I'll intercept the pair away from the star drawing the twisted in. I'll only have to deal with ones we're in the path of, and they'll attack Ran and Chen, too. It won't be a problem."

"If you're sure."

"I am," Utsuho said. "Now let's do this."

* * *

Tenshi made to charge at the enemy, but Rumia knocked her back. "Stay in position. This isn't the time for your stupid games."

"Oh, come on," the celestial replied. "We're kicking the shit out of them. I can afford to have a little fun."

"Do not underestimate the enemy. There's still plenty of time for an unpleasant surprise."

"Fine, fine, fine."

* * *

Utsuho fired the first shot as soon as her targets came into view. Ran and Chen split, flying around opposite sides of the star she sent at them. But then the star exploded.

Both shikigami slammed into the ground. Utsuho went for Chen first, blasting her into unconsciousness before she could recover. Then Utsuho waited, and as expected, Ran soon came charging towards her, screaming in anger.

Utsuho waited until Ran drew close, then blasted herself forward, colliding with Ran at high speed. She tossed the surprised shikigami into the ground. She dove down, slamming Ran harder into the ground. Then she hit Ran with a star at point-blank range, and followed that up with a few other blasts.

Chen regained consciousness quickly and got to her feet, but she was in no shape to fight, and she knew it. Ran, too, knew that she'd been beaten. The pair moved over to each other but made no moves aside from that, so Utsuho didn't interfere.

"You should leave," Ran said eventually. "Our loss means that Yukari will come herself, and she intends to kill you. If you run, you should be able to survive."

"You feel it, too," Utsuho said, "don't you? You're connected to her; you can feel what's happening to her, and it's starting to affect you, too, isn't it?"

"Not yet, but soon. And then it will get to Chen through me."

"But it hasn't done so yet. You still have the presence of mind to know when you've lost. You can still recognize defeat. So do that now. You've lost; leave before you get caught up in any more fighting."

"We intend to," Ran replied, "but you should leave, too. If you remain, Yukari will kill you."

"Cirno and I are not going to run," Utsuho said. "I'll thank you for the warning, but we will not be heeding it."

"Then I have nothing more to say. Let's go, Chen."

* * *

"Ninety percent!" Sanae announced.

_Why is it_, Eirin wondered,_ that people always feel the need to give you more frequent updates when they're close to the end?_ "Don't relax yet. There's-"

"Still time for something to happen," Tenshi said. "You've only said that like ten million times. We get it already."

"I don't believe that you do. You haven't been taking this seriously at all."

"Oh, whatever."

* * *

"This," Utsuho said, "could be bad."

"Are you thinking we should run?"

"We promised not to run," Utsuho said, "but this isn't an opponent we can simply overpower. She can just manipulate the border of life and death to kill us, and given what Mokou told us, even you might not live through that."

"We need a plan, then."

"We'll have to strike first. The problem is that if whatever we hit her with doesn't kill her instantly, she can do some border manipulation and be good as new. And even if we do kill her, if she has time to realize it, she can change the border of life and death on herself and survive anyways. And, of course, whatever we hit her with has to happen fast, or else she'll just teleport out of the way."

"So what we need," Cirno said, "is something that'll hit her before she knows it's coming and essentially vaporize her instantly. And from far enough away that she won't have struck yet. Which means…"

"Cirno?"

"Hey, Utsuho."

"Um, yes?"

"You know that thing you said to never ever do? Let's do it."

There was a stunned silence. "Um," Utsuho said eventually. "Okay, um, no. That's not really a good idea."

"Why not? It should be just what we need."

"Yeah, and I can think of several reasons not to do it."

"Give 'em to me," Cirno said. "We'll go over them one at a time. And quickly; Ran and Chen are almost back to Yukari."

"Um, okay," Utsuho said. "First of all, it's got the potential to do more damage than I want to cause even here in the middle of nowhere."

"We can contain it."

"I know we can contain immediate damage, but I'm not talking about immediate damage."

"I know that. We can contain it. We tested that, remember?"

"Not at this scale."

"We can contain it. And any that gets out we can remove afterwards."

"Maybe, but it could easily kill us if we mess up, and if that happens, the damage will be… extreme. I don't want to cause that kind of damage even here."

"Where's your confidence? We can pull it off, and you should know it."

"We can't know that. And even if you're right, should we? Is it right to go that far just to handle one person?"

"Just admit it," Cirno said. "You know why you don't want to do this."

"You're right," Utsuho said. "That's exactly why I don't like the idea. But that doesn't invalidate anything I've said."

"My points are perfectly valid, too."

"It's still insane."

"Then maybe I'm crazy," Cirno said, "because I think we should do it."

Despite her own… aversion to the idea, and despite the objections she'd raised, Utsuho knew that Cirno was right. "I guess that means I'm crazy, too." She paused briefly. "Let's do it."

Utsuho got rid of the star that had been drawing the twisted, and the containment field as well. "This'll take our complete focus," she explained. "Even the containment field may be too much extra. Besides, we won't need that draw after this. What we're about to do'll probably draw in every last one of them. Most'll die immediately, but any that don't arrive until after we're done we'll have to deal with. So we can't completely drain ourselves."

"We can handle it."

"I think so. I hope so."

* * *

"I told you to be ready," Eirin said, "but you didn't listen, now, did you?"

"Oh, shut up," Tenshi said. "We're fine."

"This is back up to about what came during the test," Aya observed.

"Tenshi's right," Youmu said. "We can handle it."

Eirin nodded. "Most likely." _But…_

_Does this mean something happened to Cirno and Utsuho?_

* * *

Cirno and Utsuho stood facing each other, and Cirno rose off the ground to match Utsuho's height. "Ready?"

"Ready," Utsuho said. "Yukari's approaching; we need to do this now."

"Then let's do it."

The two of them pressed their hands up against each other's and began building up energy within themselves. "That'll do it," Utsuho said when they were done.

"Good, because she's getting close. Let's do it. Time to hit… what did you say it was called? 'Critical mass'?"

"Something like that."

"Right."

"On three."

They counted together. "One. Two. Three!"

* * *

"Okay," Tenshi said, "I think I'm going to go with 'what the fuck?'."

"They're gone," Wriggle said. "All of them. But Sanae's not done yet, right?"

"Ninety-five percent!" Sanae announced.

"Not quite," Eirin said. "Stay on guard. There's no telling what'll happen next."

It was only their control over the forces they'd unleashed that allowed them to even see and hear each other. Their sensing ability, however, was unaffected, so they knew that the plan had been successful. Yukari was gone. "Into the air!" Utsuho shouted. "We'll let it throw us up, then cut the blast! Now!"

The pair allowed the force of the explosion to blast them upwards, sending them up above the blast they'd caused. Their control over it was sufficient to allow them to eliminate it even while force remained.

_We actually did it,_ Utsuho thought, looking down at the vaguely mushroom-shaped cloud their blast had created, a cloud that faded quickly. _I almost did exactly what everyone's afraid I'll do, but we pulled it off._

The two of them began to descend. "Not too many of them," Cirno said. "Shouldn't be a problem."

"Agreed. Let's finish this."

* * *

"Done!"

Sanae fell to the ground, exhausted. "It's… done."

"Got weird at the end there, didn't it?" Tenshi remarked as she finished off the last few twisted. "Their numbers pick up again, then they all vanish, and then they're suddenly back. What the hell was all that about?"

"I don't know," Eirin said. _I'll have to get a report from Cirno and Utsuho. They may have something to do with it._ She turned to Sanae. "The barrier's in place?"

"Yes," Sanae said. "It's… in place. Aya, take me back to the shrine, please. I need some rest."

"It would seem, then, that we're done here," Eirin said. "There are probably still scattered twisted remaining, but no new ones should form, and those few that remain can be eliminated easily. Good work, everyone."


	14. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"So you're going back underground?"

"Yes," Cirno said. She and Wriggle were by Eientei's main entrance. "Utsuho had to settle something with Eirin, but I do believe she's on her way out now. I know she's going back down, and I want to go with her. Although we won't be hiding anymore."

"Why did you stay hidden, anyways?" Wriggle asked.

"At first, we were simply trying to avoid the twisted, but once they left? Well… I'm not really sure, actually. Utsuho's the one who insisted we remain hidden. I know there were concerns over how people would react to what we were doing, but… well, I'm not really sure. We won't be doing it any longer, though."

"You'll still be living in the.. "Palace of the Earth Spirits', was it?"

"Yeah," Cirno said. "Although the 'palace' part is really meaningless now, something left over from… however long ago it was, when the place actually was used as a palace. But yes, we'll continue living there. You're welcome to come visit us. Mystia, too. And speaking of the old group, what ended up happening with Rumia?"

"Eirin decided to 'postpone judgment', as she put it. Rumia's out there somewhere. The current one, at least. Ours is…"

"I know," Cirno said. "Sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"It's not a problem," Wriggle said. "Don't worry about it. Anyways, yes, I'll come to visit. And I'll bring Mystia."

"Good. I haven't seen her in… well, in as long as it had been since I last saw you. Are you living with her now?"

Wriggle nodded. "Yeah. You'll see her soon; we'll come visit together."

"Be careful coming down," Utsuho said as she exited the mansion.

"Oh, come on," Cirno said. "You, too?"

"What do you mean?" Wriggle asked Utsuho.

"Well, I'll tell Yamame and Parsee about you, so they should let you down, but… well, Parsee has something of a problem with jealousy. She strikes out at people sometimes. So be careful with her."

"I think we can handle that," Wriggle said. "Well, I should be getting back to Mystia. Thanks for the help, Cirno. Oh, and you, too, Utsuho."

"See you soon," Cirno said. As Wriggle flew off, Cirno turned to Utsuho. "It's done, then?"

"It is," Utsuho said. "Eirin gave it to me, and I took it. And it didn't tast nearly as bad as I thought. Actually, now that I think about it, it didn't really taste like much of anything. Not that it matters, seeing as how it's not something I'll be tasting again."

"I still don't think the significance has really hit me yet," Cirno said.

"It probably hasn't hit me yet, either. But it will. Anyways, shall we be going, as well?"

"Yeah," Cirno said. "Back underground, right?"

"Right. Although I'm not sure what we'll do now."

"No reason we can't keep training ourselves."

"No," Utsuho said, "I suppose there's not. You enjoyed it too, then."

"Yeah," Cirno said. "I did."

"Well, then, let's see just how far we can go."

* * *

**Well, there we go. Story's done. Don't get disssapointed that it's over or anything, though; I've already got another Touhou story on the way. It's probably be... well, more smoothly Touhou, if that makes any sense. This was my first Touhou fic; I wasn't completely sure how to work with some elements, especially earlier on (I've gotten more used to it as time went on). So, yeah, the next story's likely to be better. I plan to call it 'Orphan', and it'll be up... well, whenever I write the first chapter. I hope to see you there.**


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